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Accessibility at the UW

Category: Training

Connecting With UW Supervisors To Prepare for April 26 and Beyond

Post categories: GAAD Leadership Training

On January 20, 2026, the UW Digital Accessibility Initiative team shared an update with all UW supervisors outlining the April 26, 2026 deadline for digital accessibility requirements and the tools, training, and events available to support this work. This post provides a summary of that message for the UW community; the message is also available online.

Ongoing updates to supervisors will continue through spring 2026 to help make digital accessibility part of everyday practice across the University.

How Supervisors Can Support This Work

Supervisors play an important role in helping teams plan for the deadline and for a more accessible and inclusive UW. In our January 20 message, supervisors were invited to:

  • Share accessibility resources and updates with their teams
  • Encourage participation in training and community events
  • Reinforce accessibility as part of everyday digital work
  • Help teams prioritize accessibility for websites, documents, videos, forms, and course materials

Tools: Accessibility Checkers

Accessibility checkers can help identify common issues such as missing alternative text, low color contrast, and structural problems. UW-supported options include:

  • Built-in checkers, such as those in Microsoft Office applications
  • Course accessibility tools such as Ally and TidyUP
  • DubBot, UW’s web accessibility checker (available by request), along with other tools and extensions

Accessibility checkers are most effective when paired with manual review and informed judgment. Additional accessibility checkers and extensions are listed on Accessible Technology’s Tools web page.

Learn and Connect: Events

Community learning is an important part of UW’s accessibility efforts. UW hosts regular events that offer practical guidance and opportunities to connect with colleagues.
Recurring and upcoming events include:

Visit the Digital Accessibility calendar for full details.

Guidance and Training

UW offers free digital accessibility training and practical guidance for all roles, from beginners to advanced practitioners. The Digital Accessibility Training page brings together recommended learning paths, role-based courses, and how-to resources to help teams get started and build skills over time.

Together, we will make accessibility a shared, sustainable practice for creating and delivering digital content, for the April 26 deadline and beyond.

Happy (More Accessible) New Year

Post categories: Partners Training

As we move toward the April 24, 2026 ADA Title II deadline, digital accessibility will be a shared focus for the University community. Meaningful progress depends on embedding accessibility into everyday workflows for creating, publishing, and sharing digital content. Together, we can ensure accessibility is not an add-on but is a standard feature of the UW experience.

2025: Expanding Tools, Training, and Community

UW’s Digital Accessibility Initiative (DAI) exists to support this effort, and throughout 2025, teams devoted to the DAI focused on connecting people with tools, training, resources, and each other. This work reflects a growing, coordinated effort across all three campuses to build sustainable digital accessibility practices. Highlights from the past year include:

Support for Faculty and Instructors

Coordination Across UW Campuses and Services

  • Expansion of the Digital Accessibility Liaisons community, which has grown to over 200 members, supported by a Microsoft Teams site and regular meetings.
  • Development of a Digital Accessibility portal, news and events blog, and central calendar to make it easier to find resources, events, and perspectives from across UW campuses.
  • Ongoing updates to UW leaders to reinforce digital accessibility as an institutional priority and to advocate for sustained support.
  • Publication of an interim Minimum Digital Accessibility Standard to establish UW requirements for digital content and applications to ensure equal access to University services, programs, and activities, and support compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
  • Establishment of a Tri-Campus Libraries ADA Title II Task Force by UW Libraries to help clarify compliance priorities, coordinate information sharing, and encourage digital accessibility improvements across the libraries. Additionally, a dedicated local resource page was created to support centralized access to information. UW Libraries’ Accessibility Working Group offers information sessions with guest speakers to share best practices for ADA Title II compliance.

Campus-Specific Digital Accessibility Efforts

  • Enhancement of UW Tacoma’s digital accessibility efforts through consolidation of accessibility resources on a central campus webpage, the launch of the Faculty Council on Digital Accessibility (FCDA), and ongoing professional development via Accessibility Insights workshops to support a proactive, community-driven accessibility culture.
  • Expansion of UW Bothell shared resources — from guidelines to workshops and webpages — through the campus monthly faculty/staff newsletter, open office hours, and one-to-one conversations. Additionally, the development of a UW Bothell accessibility news SharePoint site and revision of the UW Bothell Accessibility website helped UW Bothell share new information and tools.

2026: Looking Ahead

We look forward to connecting with you and continuing to build a more accessible UW together. Happy 2026!

 

New Video: Building Digital Accessibility Together 

Post categories: Digital Accessibility Training

As UW prepares to meet updated ADA Title II digital accessibility standards by April 26, 2026, the work ahead is both a responsibility and an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to equity and inclusion. While the deadline is an important milestone, the broader goal is ongoing: creating digital spaces where everyone at the University of Washington can learn, work, and engage fully.

To support this work, the Digital Accessibility Initiative team has released a new video highlighting why digital accessibility matters and where to find resources, training, and support.

As Provost Tricia Serio notes in the video, digital accessibility strengthens UW’s collective impact:

“That’s the way we’re going to have the greatest impact in the world—by unleashing the power of all the talent that is the University of Washington.”

From course materials and research data to websites, documents, and services, digital content touches nearly every part of UW life. Improving accessibility means making sure that content works for people with a wide range of abilities, technologies, and ways of interacting with information. By building digital accessibility skills now, we’re not only preparing for federal compliance, we’re preparing for the future.

Free training, resources, and events

To support this work, UW offers free training and resources designed to meet you wherever you are on your learning path—whether you’re just getting started or looking to deepen your skills.

Available options include:

These resources are designed to be flexible, practical, and relevant to the real work happening across UW campuses every day.

Watch the video and get started

The Digital Accessibility Initiative video offers a brief introduction to why this work matters and how you can get involved. Watch the video, share it with your colleagues, and explore the training and other resources available to you.

Together, we can build digital spaces that reflect UW’s values and ensure access for all.

Resources

Digital accessibility training options
Build accessible course materials
Tools: web and course accessibility checkers
Accessibility basics: techniques, guides, and checklists
Digital accessibility policies, standards, and guidelines
UW digital accessibility offices and services

Digital Accessibility Training Options and Calendar

Post categories: Digital Accessibility Training

Building on the digital accessibility training opportunities we highlighted this summer, UW has launched a new Digital Accessibility Calendar to make it easier to find events across all campuses that support inclusive digital experiences. The calendar, available on the Accessible Technology website, lists opportunities from across UW campuses, including webinars, meetups, and hands-on sessions led by accessibility experts.

Accessible digital content helps ensure that everyone in the UW community can fully participate in our digital spaces. The new calendar complements existing training options and highlights the University’s ongoing commitment to building an inclusive digital environment for all.

As a reminder, there are many free, flexible ways to build your digital accessibility skills—whether you’re just getting started or expanding your expertise, and whether you prefer self-paced or expert-led training. Below are some of the most popular options available to anyone with a UW NetID, offered through departments and partners such as Teaching@UW, UW Bothell, and UW-IT Accessible Technology Services. Refer to our July post to learn about training options by audience and best ways to get started.

Digital Accessibility Training Options

Digital Accessibility Training Options

Audiences: UW students, faculty, staff, graduate students
Skill levels: Beginner to Advanced

LinkedIn Learning provides a rich catalog of digital accessibility training videos, available at no cost to UW students, staff, and faculty. To help you get started, Accessible Technology Services (ATS) has created four custom learning paths for the UW community, with more to come!

Topics include: 

  • Web accessibility
  • Creating accessible documents and multimedia
  • Inclusive design practices

Find more information, including custom learning paths, on the ATS LinkedIn Learning web page. 

Audiences: UW students, faculty, staff, developers, designers, and more
Skill levels: Beginner to Advanced
Deque University is a great place to start learning at your own pace and level, and their training library is free for anyone with a UW NetID.

Deque University is a great place to start learning at your own pace and level, and their training library is free for anyone with a UW NetID.

Deque’s online library contains over 100 courses and reference materials about digital accessibility. The courses are as short as 30 minutes or as long as 6 hours and cover a wide range—from the basics to more advanced techniques—and are useful for all kinds of roles: faculty, developers, designers, document authors, and more. To help you get started, Accessible Technology Services (ATS) has created a list of suggested courses for specific roles on the on the Accessible Technology Services (ATS) Deque University for UW Users web page. 

Audiences: UW faculty, staff, graduate students
Skill levels: Beginner to Intermediate
Hosted in the UW Bothell Canvas instance, Accessibility 101 is a self-paced course that introduces:

  • Core disability and accessibility concepts
  • Best practices for creating accessible web content and documents
  • Universal Design (UD) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
  • Optional deep dives into PDF remediation, spreadsheet accessibility, accessible teaching, and more

An updated version of Accessibility 101 will be launched soon! Visit UW Bothell’s Accessibility Training page for more information. 

Audiences: UW web developers & designers
Skill levels: Beginner to Advanced

These monthly meetups are a place for accessibility-minded colleagues to casually review and discuss projects, including hands-on testing and code review. Offered on the 4th Tuesday of each month, 11:00-noon.

Find out more on the Accessible Technology Events page.  

Audiences: UW faculty, staff, graduate students
Skill levels: Beginner

This monthly series, hosted by Mary-Colleen Jenkins, an instructional accessibility specialist with UW’s Accessible Technology Services (ATS), features guest speakers from the UW community who share insights and information on making your course content digitally accessible. Typically offered the 1st Tuesday of each month, from noon to 1:00 pm.

Find out more about these monthly sessions on the Accessible Technology Events page.

Audiences: UW faculty, staff, graduate students
Skill levels: Beginner
The Making Course Materials Accessible page on Teaching@UW provides actionable guidance for instructors with specific guidance for syllabi, reading & textbooks, slide decks, Canvas courses, and more.

Teaching@UW also offers Teaching Online 101, an eight-week, online course that enhances digital-course design and pedagogy while integrating key accessibility principles.

This year, Teaching@UW is also offering several information sessions and workshops related to digital accessibility.

Audiences: UW students, faculty, staff
Skill levels: Beginner to Advanced
UW-IT Accessible Technology Services (ATS) offers on-demand webinar recordings covering topics such as:

  • Teaching accessible online courses
  • Document and web accessibility
  • Video accessibility
  • Testing with screen readers
  • Accessibility in procurement

Watch recordings at your own pace on the Accessible Technology Webinar Series page. 

Skill level: Beginner to Advanced
12-week, online, asynchronous program through UW Professional & Continuing Education 
Audiences: Web & mobile developers, as well as nontechnical professionals, compliance coordinators, program administrators, social service professionals, disability service providers, educators, content creators, and advocates in any field that want to be more comfortable with a broad range of issues in making digital technology more accessible to individuals of diverse abilities. The course is designed to build foundational skills in digital accessibility, including the use of accessibility tools and the creation of accessible content.

Visit UW’s Professional & Continuing Education website for more information, including tuition and schedule. 

Join the Pack: Support Digital Accessibility

  • For more information, resources, and upcoming events, visit the Digital Accessibility portal.
  • If your department has a digital accessibility story to share, we’d love to hear from you! Contact us at digitalaccess@uw.edu.