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
- Delivery of monthly toolkits to academic leadership to share digital and course accessibility resources with faculty.
- Offering new resources, tools and additional training sessions for faculty, including:
- Teaching@UW’s Making Course Materials Accessible web page,
- Canvas-based tools TidyUP and UDOIT, and Ally,
- A regular cadence of workshops such as Teaching@UW info-sessions, ATS Lunch & Learn and Progress Over Perfection (POP) sessions.
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
- As we move into 2026, collaboration, shared learning, and practical support, along with upcoming milestones such as Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), will help keep accessibility integrated into daily work as we approach the April 2026 deadline and beyond.
- To get involved, join the Digital Accessibility Liaisons Community of Practice. All members of the UW community are welcome to join.
We look forward to connecting with you and continuing to build a more accessible UW together. Happy 2026!