IT Accessibility Team

IT Accessibility Team

993 PDF Documents Remediated

ITAT staff provided free remediation of UW PDF documents that are highly visible, high-impact, multiple use, and/or strategic. In 2022, ITAT staff remediated 933 documents totaling 6,032 pages, positively affecting thousands of students, faculty, staff, and visitors as they access public-facing documents. Examples of high-impact documents remediated include the ADA Transition Plans for Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell from Compliance Services, many onboarding forms linked from central HR, and petitions for graduating from the Office of the Registrar. For additional information about document accessibility, visit the website.

518 Videos Captioned

ITAT staff provides free captioning of UW videos that are highly visible, high-impact, multiple use, and/or strategic. In 2022, ITAT staff captioned 518 videos with over 150 hours of run time, estimated to impact over 130,000 viewers. Examples of high impact videos captioned include videos for Global Health courses that are viewed by students around the world for many of whom English is a second language, and videos for several UW YouTube channels. ITAT staff also helped UW video owners add audio description to their videos, a standard technique that makes highly visual video content accessible to individuals who are unable to see the video. Of the 518 videos, 9 videos were audio described. For additional information about video accessibility, including ITAT’s free captioning service, visit the website.

30 Vendor Partnerships

ITAT staff work collaboratively with many of the technology vendors with whom the UW does business, in order to help them improve the accessibility of their products and services. Key partnerships in 2022 included Articulate, Epic MyChart (UW Medicine), Microsoft, Mural, Kaye-Smith (UW Physician Billing), Trumba, Workday, and Zoom. 

100+ Presentations and Events

ITAT staff host standing monthly activities such as the online Web Accessibility/Usability Meetup and Accessible Technology Webinar Series. They also provide three half-day trainings per year to the network of IT Accessibility Liaisons and deliver customized trainings, workshops, and presentations on request to campus units and departments. ITAT staff are globally recognized for their expertise on IT accessibility, and, in 2022, they gave presentations at several regional and national conferences, including the Building Bridges Technology Conference, CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, and Accessing Higher Ground (Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference).

Collaborator Spotlights

Lynn Magill, Procurement Services

Lynn Magill is the assistant director for contracting and sourcing within Procurement Services. She is a strong advocate for accessibility when negotiating contracts with IT vendors. She actively participates on the UW’s IT Accessibility Task Force and is a regular co-presenter of the Accessibility in Procurement webinar, which is offered twice a year in ITAT’s Accessible Tech Webinar Series. She also works to educate her colleagues nationwide through the National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP), presenting on contracts and risk management in webinars and at their annual meeting. In her presentations, she talks about how the UW is building in accessibility as a process standard and how that intersects with the institution’s diversity efforts. 

Elliott Stevens, University Libraries

Elliott Stevens is the English studies and research commons librarian for University Libraries. He initiated and led a collaboration for over five years with the makers of Manifold, a platform for accessing and publishing books electronically, to help them improve their accessibility. Several of ITAT’s student employees joined the Manifold collaboration during its five-year span, and Elliott was very helpful in teaching them about Manifold and bringing them on board to the project. He also engaged other library colleagues in discussions of accessibility, raising their awareness and helping them to improve the accessibility of their services.

ITAT 2022 Highlights

Launched a freshly redesigned UW Accessible Technology website.			Helped web designers and developers solve many technical challenges through our monthly Web Accessibility and Usability Meetup.
Continued the Accessible Technology Webinar Series with at least one webinar per month on popular topics in IT accessibility.			Hired Mary-Colleen Jenkins to work closely with faculty to support them in making their online courses more accessible.