Sustainability Team
Charged to develop and maintain the long-term framework, policies, practices, and guidelines necessary to uphold digital accessibility beyond 2026.
- Develop long-term governance and policy frameworks
- Imbed accessibility into institutional workflows
- Implement metrics and monitoring systems
- Establish mechanisms for long-term accessibility enablement
Chair: Bree Callahan, ADA/Section 504 Coordinator, Civil Rights Compliance Office
- Amy Ko, The Information School
- Beth Somerfield, Deputy ADA Coordinator, Civil Rights Compliance Office
- Darcy Janzen, Director, Digital Learning, UW Tacoma
- Hana Levay, University Libraries
- Jon Payne, Director of Healthcare Nondiscrimination and Regulatory Affairs, UW Medicine
- Karin Roberts, Director, Teaching & Learning Systems, Information Technology
- Lalitha Subramanian, Continuum College
- Lynn Magill, Procurement Services
- Terrill Thompson, IT Accessibility Team Manager, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services
- Thomas Thorpe, Director Web Strategy, University Marketing & Communications
- Project Manager: Jeanne Petty, Civil Rights Compliance Office
- Led the Policy and Technical Standard through leadership review, stakeholder engagement, Rules Office submission, public comment, and final publication.
- Published the Digital Accessibility Policy (APS 9.0), Technical Standard, and 11 related procedures.
- Established the Exception Review Panel and defined processes for product and course content exceptions.
- Reviewed and refined the Digital Accessibility Compliance Partner Program model.
Remediation Team
Charged to reduce accessibility barriers in high-impact digital content across UW.
- The identification and prioritization of digital accessibility risk
- Enable the Remediation of high-impact inaccessible digital content
- Coordinate with distributed IT units
- Track and report progress on remediation efforts
- Recommend tools and workflows
- Support training and knowledge transfer
Chair: Susie Hawkey, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services
- Ana Thompson, Academic Technology, UW Bothell
- Claudia Aguirre, Development Services Director, College of Engineering
- Dominick Mendoza, IT – Student Life
- Gaby de Jongh, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services
- Marcus Hirsch, Director, Academic Strategy & Affairs Information Services
- Mary Mulvihill, Director of Digital Accessibility, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services
- Perry Yee, University Libraries
- Koji Sonoda, Director of Digital Health, UW Medicine
- Kory Kuriel, Director of Digital Experience, UW Medicine
- Tohm Judson, University Marketing & Communication
- Project Manager: Ahuvah Reese, UW-IT
- Expanded DubBot coverage for digital accessibility assessment and remediation from 960 to over 1,300 UW websites.
- Procured and made available key accessibility tools, including:
- Deque鈥檚 Axe DevTools for website application auditing
- Little Forest Leaf for PDF auditing and remediation
- 3Play Media for video captioning
- Grackle for Google
- MathType for accessible equation editing
- MathPix for math/science OCR conversion
- Established coordinated, multi-unit remediation strategies across campuses.
- Maintained ongoing monitoring of websites, mobile applications, and LMS content in Bridge.
- Transitioned focus from reactive remediation to sustainable content creation practices.
Change Management Team
Charged to build awareness, inspire commitment, and provide clear, consistent messaging so that faculty, staff, and students feel supported in making accessibility an integral part of their work.
- Deliver timely, clear messaging about the DOJ Title II requirements, UW鈥檚 accessibility standards, and why accessibility matters.
- Use events, stories, and campaigns (e.g., 鈥淛oin the Pack鈥�) to build a shared sense of responsibility and pride in accessible digital content.
- Develop and maintain communication materials (FAQs, newsletters, website hub, templates) that explain processes and expectations in plain language.
- Highlight resources such as training, remediation playbooks, and liaison networks so people know how to take action.
- Share progress through dashboards, success stories, and recognition programs to keep momentum strong.
Chair: Mary Mulvihill, Director of Digital Accessibility, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services
- Beth Somerfield, Deputy ADA Coordinator, Civil Rights Compliance Office
- Darcy Janzen, Director, Digital Learning, UW Tacoma
- Elizabeth Sharpe, Director of Internal Communications, School of Medicine
- Jennifer Mankoff, Director, Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences
- Marisa Nickle, Senior Director, Strategy & Academic Initiatives
- Mary-Colleen Jenkins, UW-IT Accessible Technology Services
- Melissa Albin, Communications, UW-IT
- Sarah Frazier, Enterprise Risk Management, Compliance and Risk Services
- Coordinated communication planning with project leadership, tri-campus stakeholders, and participants representing staff, academy, Accessible Technology Services and UW Medicine.
- Produced Monthly Toolkits for Academic Leaders to facilitate internal unit communications around making course materials accesible.
- Promoted digital accessibility with UW Leaders/Supervisors via monthly email messages highlighting updates, tools, and resources
- Engaged UW鈥檚 Digital Accessibility Liaisons
- Communicated with UW departments and units regarding the initiative, training, and new tools. This included numerous presentations by DAI leadership and emails crafted for specific audiences.
Course Content Implementation Team
Implement and execute the AY24-25 Course Content Action Team recommendations. The implementation team membership is designed to change over time to include subject-matter expertise relevant to the area of focus of work prioritized in the near-term.
Chair: Marcus Hirsch, Director, Information Services, Academic Strategy & Affairs, chair
- Derek Barbee, Director, Instructional Development & Course Production, Continuum College
- Bryan Blakeley, AVP for Partnerships & Online Learning, Continuum College
- Bree Callahan, ADA Coordinator, Compliance Services
- Darcy Janzen, Director, Digital Learning, UW Tacoma
- Deborah Hathaway, Director, Learning & Teaching, UW Bothell
- Edith Wang, Associate Dean, School of Medicine
- Jake Kulstad, Assistant Director, Academic Technologies, Academic Strategy & Affairs
- Penelope Moon, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Strategy & Affairs
- Mary Mulvihill, Director of Digital Accessibility, Accessible Technology Services, UW Information Technology
- Marisa Nickle, Senior Director, Strategy & Academic Initiatives, Academic Strategy & Affairs
- Priya Keefe, Project Manager, Information Services, Academic Strategy & Affairs
- Phil Reid, Vice Provost, Academic Strategy & Affairs and professor, Chemistry
- Karin Roberts, Director, Teaching & Learning Systems, UW Information Technology
- El Schofield, Service Manager, UW-IT Teaching & Learning Systems, UW Information Technology
- Adiam Tesfay, Director, Disability Resources for Students, Student Life
- Developed new self-access information and guidance for instructors on Teaching@UW鈥檚 Making Course Materials Accessible suite of webpages
- Improved the coherence of existing websites across units to improve information access.
- Implemented a centralized support model for instructor requests for accessibility guidance.
- Piloted discipline-specific accessibility support through embedded student specialists in Biology, Chemistry and Built Environments, disciplines with complex accessibility issues.
- Enabled student reporting of accessibility barriers in Canvas.
- Deployed new Canvas tools (Archive labels, TidyUp, UDOIT).
- Developed an exceptions process to handle requests from academic units for more time to address issues with complex course materials.
Course Content Communications, Outreach, and聽 Education
Key communications strategies, to date, include messages to tri-campus faculty, presentations to faculty governance groups, workshops, and robust overhauls of web resources to support faculty understanding and practical next steps as they work to ensure accessibility of course materials.
Colleagues are providing input and helping coordinate outreach and communications related to digital accessibility as part of this initiative. Contributors include:
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- UW Information Technology
- University ADA/Section 504 Coordinator
- The Teaching@UW Leadership Council
- Members of this initiatives Innovation and Research Action Team
- UW Tacoma
- UW Bothell
- Continuum College
- Student Life
- The Faculty Council on Teaching and Learning
- Faculty Senate leadership
- The Office of the Provost
- Faculty accessibility experts from several UW schools and colleges
- Provost message sent to faculty 鈥� “Expectations for making digital content accessible” (March 4)
- Vice provost message to faculty 鈥� “” (June 4)
- Outreach to faculty governance groups 鈥� Marisa Nickle & Bree Callahan presented to Faculty Senate, Faculty Senate Executive Committee, FCTL, FCSA, FCITC, FCTCP, and FCUL (March – May)
- Teaching@UW/ATS workshop (video) 鈥� “” (May 2 and recorded for asynchronous access)
- Creation of a new Teaching@UW portal page ““
- Step-by-step instructions for faculty based on Action Team recommendations, to date:
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- Presentation to BODC with offer to visit departmental retreats/meetings (June 25)
- Published Academic Course Content Action Team proposal and working groups reports on the Digital Accessibility Initiative webpage (July)
- Met with academic leadership to discuss unique challenges in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Environment, and Built Environments (Aug 鈥� Sept)
- sent to deans and associate deans (Sept 11)
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- Presenting at faculty retreats and meetings at chair鈥檚 request
- Updates to BODC, PSO, and Faculty Senate
- Meeting with academic leadership to discuss unique challenges in the Foster School, School of Medicine, iSchool, Public Health, and Social Work
- Monthly communications toolkits for associate deans to share with chairs and faculty. Monthly topics include:
- New rule 鈥� Setting expectations and prioritizing effort (Sept)
- New tools 鈥� Deleting and archiving content in Canvas using TidyUp. (Sept)
- New resources 鈥� Making documents and slide decks accessible. (Oct, Nov, Dec)
- New resources 鈥� Making videos and images accessible. Using accessibility checkers. (Jan, Feb, Mar)
- New guidelines 鈥� Accessible textbooks. (TBD)
- Step-by-step instructions for faculty based on Action Team recommendations:
- (with UW Libraries)
- Deleting and archiving content in Canvas using TidyUp
- Converting PDFs to Canvas pages using UDOIT
- Using accessibility checkers 鈥� how to interpret and improve scores
- Workshops (Teaching@UW, ATS鈥檚 Course Accessibility Lunch & Learns, and UW Bothell):
- 聽(Oct 7)
- (Oct 9)
- (Oct 14)
- (Oct 20)
- 聽(Nov 4)
- (Nov 7)
- (Nov 14)
- (Dec 2)
- 聽(Dec 9)
- 聽(Jan 6)
- (Jan 22)
- 聽(Feb 3)
- Regular UW Insider messages and Canvas banners
- UW-IT messaging to webpage owners, including faculty who host courses on webpages
- Course content related FAQ, in partnership with the ADA Coordinator
- Vice Provost messages to faculty (tentative)
- Information ecosystem improvements 鈥� coordinate analysis and updates to resource webpages to improve clarity and alignment across unit pages and improve the user experience for faculty seeking resources and information from pages such as Teaching@UW, Digital Accessibility, the Digital Accessibility Initiative, ATS, DRS, and Libraries.