2021 UW-IT Access Technology Services Annual Report
Director, Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D.
The University of Washington’s Accessible Technology Services (ATS) promotes the success of people with disabilities using technology as an empowering tool to increase independence, productivity, and participation in education. We believe this important work contributes to lively communities that value diversity and equity. ATS supports two groups: The Information Technology Accessibility Team (ITAT) and the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT) Team.
IT Accessibility Team
Manager, Terrill Thompson
ITAT serves to ensure that UW students, faculty, and staff with disabilities have access to technology that helps them accomplish their work. ITAT staff provide consultation and support to the UW community to help ensure that websites, documents, videos, software, and other technologies are accessible.
They also offer a variety of services. The team
- provides trainings,
- develops and maintains helpful resources such as the Accessible Technology website (uw.edu/accessibility), and
- offers captioning and accessibility remediation services for high impact videos and PDFs respectively.
ITAT staff work collaboratively with IT vendors to help them to provide products and services that meet the UW’s accessibility standards. In 2021, they collaborated with 30 vendors including DocuSign, DocFinity, Google, H5P, Microsoft, Mural, Pearson, Kaye-Smith (UW Physician Billing), Workday, Zoom, and many others.
Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology
Manager, Scott Bellman
DO-IT has continued to secure external funding to address accessibility issues statewide, nationally, and internationally. Working with UW and external partners, DO-IT supports activities that increase the success of people with disabilities in college and careers. It was founded in 1992 with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In 2021, hundreds of students attended DO-IT’s virtual college-preparation camps at the UW, engaged in mentoring, and secured challenging internships and careers. DO-IT’s longitudinal study continues to document the success of programs and participants.
DO-IT worked with organizations in the United States and other countries to adapt evidence-based practices to
- promote the success of people with disabilities in college studies and careers;
- advance the development and use of technology for people with disabilities; and
- promote the universal design of instruction, physical spaces, technology, and services.
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. |
The DO-IT Team
The DO-IT Team
Grant-Funded Projects
In 2022, DO-IT published DO-IT Retrospective: Our First 30 Years. Throughout the year, DO-IT staff worked on many projects funded by the NSF. Ongoing NSF projects included AccessComputing, AccessCSforAll, AccessADVANCE, Creating and Testing Data Science Learning Tools for Secondary Students with Disabilities, Neuroscience for Neurodiverse Learners, and two subawards: The Alliance for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Computing Education and The Alliance of Persons with Disabilities and Intersectionality for Inclusion, Networking, and Transition Opportunities in STEM. DO-IT also finalized the AccessCSforAll2.0, Access to Informal STEM Learning and AccessINCLUDES grants. DO-IT received funding for a subaward from the University of Minnesota in 2022. Staff also managed DO-IT’s state-funded Scholars program as well as maintained resources, activities, and collaborations related to legacy projects.
50+ Internships
DO-IT participants engaged in over 50 internships with a majority being paid internships in STEM fields. Locations included Nike, Northrup Gruman, Microsoft, Intel Labs, Comcast, Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, Nordstrom, the Argonne National Laboratory, the Children’s National Medical Center, and several universities. Through internships, students build their professional networks, learn about career fields, improve strategies for requesting job accommodations, apply academic learning to real-world environments, and access state-of-the-art equipment.
1000+ Participants
DO-IT serves over 1,000 students with disabilities in our programs. Activities in 2022 included workshops, networking events, mentoring, disability advocacy events, and five weeks of online and on-site college-preparation summer programs. Through these activities, students build job seeking skills, improve their resumes, learn how to be successful in college, gain access to assistive technology, and much more.
[Text featured: DO-IT’s Reach Since 1993: More than 600 DO-IT Scholars and Ambassadors from 258 high schools in Washington and 29 states across the US; 66 institutional partners, 23 organizational partners, and 11 industry partners serving over 300 AccessComputing students nationwide; Leadership activities in national alliances, such as the Alliance for Identity Inclusive Computing Education and the STEM Alliance; and DO-IT Center hosted in Japan, DO-IT partnerships in Malaysia and South Korea.]
Participant Spotlights
Kelly Mack, University of Washington
Kelly Mack, a Ph.D. student at the UW Allen School, works with researchers to take accessibility and disability into account in their research methods and design processes. She has carried this accessibility mindset into her work with industry work with Snap Inc. and Girls Who Code. Mack’s dissertation will focus on building technology that supports people with disabilities who have fluctuating access needs and disability identities, and she recently received the 2022 Dorothy L. Simpson Leadership Award. “AccessComputing has been awesome because you have a shared community of fellow disabled students in STEM who are going through similar things” said Kelly, who joined AccessComputing in the spring of 2019. “Having a community to go to for support and advice is invaluable.”
Allegra Keys, University of Washington
Allegra Keys is a DO-IT Scholar from 2009, poet, and author. Keys attended University of Washington for a year before taking a haitus to focus on her writing and other aspects of life. DO-IT taught her to self advocate for herself and speak up for those with disabilities, which she does in her ongoing blog. In 2019, she returned to the University of Washington and in June 2023, Allegra will graduate from UW Seattle with an English degree in creative writing with departmental honors. She hopes to be accepted into the UW Master of Fine Arts program focused on poetry. Her poetry has been featured in multiple collections, and she published her first book, Knotted Strings, in 2013. Through her writing she aspires to make narrative spaces for people with disabilities.
DO-IT 2022 Highlights
| DO-IT successfully ran two summer studies, DO-IT Scholars and Neuroscience for Neurodiverse Learners. |  |  | AccessComputing Co-PI Stacy Branham gave the keynote at Tapia, which was well-received and has been shared widely online. |
| DO-IT developed and delivered a training program to promote hiring people with disabilities in the Yakima Valley; many employers received the training, included the City of Yakima and Yakima County. |  |  | AccessADVANCE, AccessComputing, and the NSF INCLUDES TAPDINTO-STEM Alliance each submitted a video to the STEM for All video showcase. |
Funding, Impact, and Resources
Funding
The IT Accessibility Team is supported by the University of Washington. DO-IT is funded by National Science Foundation, Washington state, and other donors; visit our funding page to learn more about DO-IT’s funders and opportunities to contribute.
Lasting Impact and Consultation
ATS increases the success of individuals with disabilities in academic and career fields through on-campus support and off-campus interventions for people with disabilities, faculty, staff, employers, and other stakeholder groups.
Its impact continues long past the duration of each interaction and activity by developing the knowledge and skills of individuals and creating and widely distributing related resources.
Engage with ATS
To support our continued work, visit our Support Page. Find resources and contact us online:
Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, Technology