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
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!
- Accessibility Insights: Starting Your Digital Accessibility Journey
- Accessibility Insights: Foundations of Digital Accessibility
- Accessibility Insights: Microsoft Word & PowerPoint
- Accessibility Insights: Accessible PDFs
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.