We have gathered resources to provide faculty, staff, students, and the community with the tools to make courses, documents, conferences, seminars, and meetings accessible.
A great place to start for UW students, faculty, staff, and visitors is the UW Accessibility website. It lists information, tools, and services for people with disabilities and all of us. Included is the UW’s plan for complying with the new ADA rule on digital accessibility.
Accessible courses, classrooms, and teaching
The AccessComputing website has an array of videos, training, and guides for teaching and supporting students with disabilities, most of which apply to all disciplines:
- A guide on: Advising Neurodivergent PhD Students.
- Video on What You Should Know About Your Students with Disabilities, including an Audio described version.
- A video on Supporting Neurodivergent Learners on Campus.
Teaching Data Science & STEM Accessibly
For instructors and TAs: creating accessible class materials that use or represent data and math. Focus on blind, low vision, screenreader users.
Accessible Courses for Visually Impaired Students
Student testimonials on the need for access. Includes captioning, course websites and syllabi, and making lectures accessible.
Teach Access: Accessible Courses
Free, online workshops for teaching accessibly in a variety of academic areas.
Teach Access: Developers/ Designers
For makers of mobile apps and websites: free, online tutorials.
Teaching Accessible Computing: An online book
A free, community-sourced online book to help computer science educators integrate accessibility topics into their classes. Teaching Accessible Computing provides the foundations of accessibility relevant to computer science teaching and presents teaching methods to integrate those topics into course design. Among the editors are CREATE faculty Amy Ko and CREATE Director of Education Emeritus Richard Ladner. You may recognize many CREATE faculty members’ research referenced throughout the guide.
Accessible presentations and materials
For speakers and their hosts: Accessibility guidelines
To-do lists for ensuring presentations are accessible to the audience and events are accessible for speakers. Includes tips for documents (Word, Google docs, PDFs).
Do’s and don’ts of making services accessible
Gov.uk has published best design practices for making services accessible. Six posters (and a text version) identify the do’s and don’ts for users’ needs.
Career resources
Blind Institute of Technology
The Blind Institute of Technology (BIT) provides employment services to individuals with any type of disability. They presented a webinar for jobseekers with disabilities and their allies (both are captioned and one version has audio description):
- Employment Services for People in the Disability Community
- Employment Services for People in the Disability Community (Audio-Described Version)
Resources for disabled academics
CREATE’s Resources for disabled academics has information for students, faculty, researchers with disabilities, and their prospective employers. It includes links to grants and fellowships, internships, mentoring, networks, and training on UW campuses and beyond.
Complying with the ADA Title II accessibility rule
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 2024 rule on digital accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires the University’s web content to be accessible starting on April 24, 2026. The scope covers medicine, research, academic courses, and all services and programs we deliver to our communities.
- The UW Office of the ADA Coordinator’s website – guidelines on the Digital Accessibility Initiative, Transformation Timeline, What You Can Do Now, and Rule FAQs.
- ADA’s Law, Regulations & Standards – legal requirements
- ADA’s Title II Web & Mobile Application Accessibility Rule – recorded webinar
- ADA’s high-level, plain-language explanations on specific topics – effective communication, emergency planning, and service animals, etc.