Short Bio: Dr. Rachael Sessler Trinkowsky

Dr. Rachael Sessler Trinkowsky is the recipient of the Florida Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (Florida FAER) award for Outstanding Rehabilitation Professional for the Blind Award (2017). She has also earned an Educational Specialist and a Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University’s College of Engineering and Computing. Her dissertation topic focused on accessibility awareness and experiences of faculty teaching online with students who have print related disabilities. She has worked in this field since 1999. She was honored to be a member of the subject matter expert committee for the development of the Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist for People with Visual Impairments (CATIS) certification through the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation & Education Professionals (ACVREP).

Dr. Sessler Trinkowsky is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) and worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Counselor with the Florida Division of Blind Services (DBS), as well as an assistive technology sales and training representative for Florida Vision Technology. She currently works full-time for the Lighthouse for the Blind of the Palm Beaches as the Technology Training and Vocational Coordinator, where she teaches online. She also teaches online as the AT Program Coordinator for the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she developed a fully online program to prepare students for the CATIS certification through ACVREP. When students complete this program, they are well-versed in best practices for universal design, as well as technologies and strategies for remote instruction.

Dr. Sessler Trinkowsky has worked at the Lighthouse for the Blind of the Palm Beaches since 2003 (except for a few years when they had to stop services due to budget issues) and has been teaching the use of virtual instruction tools for many years. Additionally, she works as an adjunct faculty for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she teaches in their online assistive technology certificate program.