Accessibility Summer Camp 2025
Wichita State University hosts an annual Accessibility Summer Camp with a focus on digital accessibility in higher education and features a spectrum of presenters discussing technology, pedagogy, and disability.
Breakout 1
In Taking UDL from Theory to Practice: A Resource for Access in Higher Education the presenters offered a reflection exercise to "help educators take universal design for learning from theory to practice using a scaffolded series of informational chapters, reflections, and case studies." That may be useful to some, but the document is dense (create a copy of UDL Reflections Template) and contains many references to other readings. I think the majority of instructors would look at this workbook and think 'I want to but that's too much.' I don't have a better method, and while this session was interesting progress on a seemingly wicked problem, more is needed to translate 'good ideas' into tangible action.
Resources
Google Slides - Taking UDL from Theory to Practice: A Resource for Access in Higher Education
Create a copy of UDL Reflections Template
Keynote
The keynote speaker was Jack McElaney, the Chief Revenue Officer at Microassist. Microassist is an accessibility consultancy focused on legal compliance with the Americans with Disabilities act. Unfortunately, much of this talk was about the dangers of being sued for inaccessible content. While that fear may be a powerful cudgel, it does not apply to my context and is not how I advocate for accessibility.
Lightning Rounds
The Lightning Round Sponsor Session was a series of 5–10 minute talks by various sponsors including:
Anthology
- Anthology offers learning management systems (LMS), student information systems (SIS), and constituent relationship management (CRM) tools
- This session demonstrated Anthology Ally (formerly Blackboard Ally) and outlined current and future features
Open LMS
- Open LMS is a highly configurable LMS
- This session provided an overview of OpenLMS and general digital accessibility features
Packback
- Packback is a discussion and writing platform that leverages instructional AI to provide instant and actionable feedback to students as they complete their assignments
- This session showed how Packback works and offered some examples of how students could use it
Recite Me
- Recite Me is a text-to-speech and wirting tool (similar to ReadSpeaker or Read&Write) that assists with reading on the web
- This session introduced Recite Me as a tool in the context of legislative requirements
Breakout 2
Mary-Colleen Jenkins presented Building an Accessibility Outreach Ecosystem for Faculty Engagement.
The session began with discussing the common methods of teaching instructors, including:
- 1:1 consultations
- Lunch & Learns
- Time at faculty meetings
- Open office hours
- Asynchronous resources
The presenter noted the shortcomings of these methods, including:
- Language Gap
- Awareness Gap
- Knowledge Gap
- Resource Gap
- Community Gap
To address this complexity, the presenter offered the idea of an outreach ecosystem that is efficient (easy to schedule, organize, and facilitate), replicable (customizable content for multiple audiences, easily adapted to digital literacy level), sustainable (appropriate workload for facilitators including content that participants could teach to others), and interactive (sessions allow participants to immediately apply what they’re learning to their own materials).
The Outreach Ecosystem proposed offers multiple ways to engage:
- Technical Support
- 1:1 Consults
- Networking & Connection
- Meetups & Events
- Training Platforms
- Workshops & Presentations
As presented, the ecosystem approach intends to address:
Professional constraints
- Lack of time
- Lack of awareness and skills
- Level of institutional support
Personal constraints
- Vulnerability
- Task paralysis
- Perfection at the expense of good
- Fear of noncompliance
The presenter indicated that in their experience most faculty want to incorporate UDL and make content accessible, but they don't know how to add to their existing workflow. The outreach ecosystem offers creative new options to address these concerns. Suggestions include building trust and generating interest by collaborating with internal partners, visiting groups instead of waiting for individuals to approach you, customizing material for the audience, identifying specific pain points to ensure relevance, scaffolding for different skill sets, empathizing with constraints, and offering to continue the conversation.
The presentation continued with a review of pilot projects, including monthly meetups/lunch & learns (60 minutes, expert presenters, and Q&A); accessibility cafes (20 minutes presentation, 70 minutes working time to co-work with peers, spur discussion, support peers, and network); progress over perfection working groups; and department specific accessibility cafes. More details are available in the Google Slides presentation.
The presenter emphasized that these multiple options make it easier for faculty to start, and continue, learning. As with many presentations, this session left me with questions about how to put this idea into practice. Creating multiple options is easier said than done but starting by designing content to be reusable and adaptable could eliminate excess work. By placing the topic at the center of the ecosystem and deliberately designing material for reuse could be a useful starting point to offer multiple options to instructors.
Breakout 3
Kim Ashbourne presented Developing a Personal Transformative Digital Accessibility Praxis; an engaging session that invited educators, learning designers, and instructional staff to move beyond viewing accessibility as a checklist for compliance. Instead, it encouraged understanding digital accessibility as an embodied, sociocultural experience that affects how people with disabilities interact with digital learning environments. Accessibility is framed not just as a technical issue, but as an issue of agency, equity, and participation in digital spaces.
The session explored how digital accessibility practices can become a part of one’s everyday teaching, learning, and design routines. Participants are guided through key digital accessibility literacy skills, including:
- Writing Skills: Proficiency with the five main WCAG 2 text-based strategies (headings, hyperlinks, alt text, text formats for audio/visual material, plain language)
- Editing/Checking: Proficiency checking the accessibility of your or others’ work
- Publishing: Proficiency saving and sharing files with accessibility features intact
- Reading: Proficiency identifying and sourcing accessible texts and media
Kim Ashbourne Google Slides - Transformative Praxis
while reflecting on how personal habits, course structures, and assumptions about 'normal' bodies influence inclusion. Activities prompted participants to identify where they need help to nurture equitable, agentive outcomes—like full participation in group work or timely access to materials—for all learners. A focus on access and agency instead of compliance makes this a more human, and hopefully more effective, approach to more accessible digital content and experiences.
Resources
Google Slides - Transformative Praxis
Overall, Accessibility Summer Camp 2025 was an engaging event that offered interesting approaches and concepts. Like many resources and events, it is easy enough to look at something and say, 'that's neat.' The challenge comes from incorporating new ideas into, or completely changing, praxis.