About ALL

Welcome to the Access, Learning and Leadership Initiative (ALL) at UC Berkeley! Our mission is to create a more inclusive and accessible educational environment by promoting Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and fostering culturally sustaining practices through engaging workshops and valuable resources.

Our Values

We ALL Thrive with Inclusive Design: A Sequential Approach

Universal Design for Learning: Clear Goals with Flexibility

Inclusive design is a gateway to empowering everyone. By setting clear goals and combining them with flexible approaches, we create an environment where all individuals, regardless of their abilities or needs, can thrive. This sequential approach acknowledges the jagged learning styles and needs of each person, enabling people with different abilities to join in, contribute, and engage with information in the ways that best suit them.

svg image for culturally sustaining practices

Culturally Sustaining Practices: Creating Community & Challenging Deep-Rooted Biases

Surface-level cultural changes are just the beginning. By creating small communities of practice and embracing culturally sustaining practices, we challenge ingrained biases, implicit prejudices, and, ultimately, structural racism. This transformation extends far beyond a baseline of ‘compliance’ that we have long limited ourselves to, it permeates attitudes and creates a genuinely welcoming atmosphere.

Building Inclusive Spaces: Everyone Becomes Welcome

By sequentially advancing from UDL to cultural transformation through creating small communities of practice and embracing culturally sustaining practices, we attach new meaning to our spaces. We construct spaces where everyone is not just ‘accommodated’ but begins to be welcome. The integration of clear goals, flexible means and inclusive cultural practices dismantles barriers. This sequential evolution dismantles not only physical but also psychological walls, fostering an environment where every individual can find a way to show their strengths.

Meet the ALL Team

The Team

We are thrilled to introduce you to the dedicated individuals who form the backbone of the Access, Learning, and Leadership (ALL) Initiative at UC Berkeley. Each member brings a unique perspective, expertise, and passion to our mission of promoting accessibility and fostering inclusivity for all members of our community.

Laksmi Balasubramanian

(she/her/hers)

is a Lecturer and social science researcher at Stanford University. She is also a consultant for inclusive practices to K-12 institutions and institutes of higher education. She completed her Ph.D. in Special Education at the joint doctoral program at the University of California, Berkeley with San Francisco State University in May 2021. Lakshmi is the recipient of the Walter J Gores Award, Stanford University's highest award for excellence in teaching. Her research focuses on building and sustaining inclusive practices in K-12 settings and institutes of higher education. She is interested in the system-level processes and programmatic structures prevalent in educational institutions and seeks to understand what are facilitators and barriers to inclusive education for all. In her research, she makes visible the ableist and disablist discourses and practices that sometimes frame the construction of disability and what it means to teach or be a disabled person in those confines. In this way, her research untangles the oppressive ideologies that are prevalent in narratives about the disabled and destabilises any claims made to a normative ideal, while affirming that inclusion and receiving education in the least restrictive environment is a civil right for disabled students.

Renee Starowicz

co-founder and staff affiliate

(she/her/hers)

is a Social Science researcher focused on thinking creatively about disability access in education and community spaces. Renee earned her Ph.D. from the Joint Program in Special Education at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and San Francisco State University (SFSU). She completed her B.A. in Psychology at Le Moyne College and her M.S. in Cultural Foundations of Education with a Certificate of Advanced study in Disability Studies from Syracuse University. Her work is focused at the nexus of interactional communication and Disability Studies in Education (DSE). Through the use of GoPro cameras, her dissertation work looked at the use of communication resources and the embodied experiences of disabled adults in a community-based transition program that supports participants from a trauma-informed and Neurodiversity lens. She finds inspiration in creative ways of thinking and engaging with complex communication and language use. She enjoys learning about multimodal ways that folks make sense of the world for themselves and with others. She hopes to expand the dynamic processes of supporting disabled students, staff and faculty on campus. She currently works as the Co-Executive Director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center and the Data Services Manager at Berkeley’s D-Lab. Renee continues her partnerships with Disability initiatives on UC Berkeley’s campus

William James Carter

co-founder, fellow, student affiliate

(he/him)

is a PhD Student and Fulbright Scholar from SE London, England, in the Geography Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He works within the Berkeley Black Geographies Project, studying the aquatic histories of the Atlantic World and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. He examines the origins of racialisation and the process by which Blackness became associated with danger through sequentially theorizing the experiences of the enslaved through the contested geographies of riverine, littoral west/central Africa, and the slave ship. William is neurodivergent and, alongside his academics, engages in extensive community engagement around neurodiversity and Disability Justice. These efforts include co-developing the ‘Access, Learning and Leadership’ (ALL) Initiative, a ‘Neurodiversity Clinic’ at Berkeley’s University Health Services, and the Neurodiversity Task Force of the UC Berkeley Graduate Division. You can read more about his work on his department profile, or download his digital business card

Pesonal profile

Rosa Enriquez

co-founder, emerita advisor

(She/her)

is one of the founding members of ALL at UC Berkeley. She helped found the prior institution of Disability Beyond Compliance, which became ALL as it is known today. Rosa became involved in disability justice at Berkeley during her second year of her Master of Social Work program when she was asked to take a leave of absence based on her disability. This sparked Rosa's interest in disability justice and revealed the many barriers disabled undergraduates and graduates experience in higher education. She organized with the disabled community (ASUC Disabled Students Commission, Graduate Assembly, Divison of Equity and Inclusion, and colleagues across the UC system) to disrupt ableism on campus. Rosa holds her Bachelor of Social Welfare ('20) and Master of Social Welfare ('22) from UC Berkeley. She is the Program Manager for Immersive Service at the UC Berkeley Public Service Center. Her work centers on critical service learning, cultural humility, advocacy, access, and holistic wellness.

Rosa would like to thank the following people: Rosa Kelekian, Elle Fenton, Carlos Vasquez

Note: Rosa is no longer actively involved with ALL but remains a true friend of the program. We truly appreciate her role in co-founding this initiative and helping to secure grant funding.

In this initiative, William and Renee are collaborating with Lakshmi as co-founders and strategic advisors to help shape and develop the initiative, its training programs, and workshops. It's important to note that Lakshmi is the exclusive provider of training services, while Renee and William are strategic advisors, and collaborators focused on content development and organizational support, rather than holding executive authority.

Design by Cesar D. Verastegui