Recently, our team at UMass Amherst set out to tackle a challenge that many universities face but few have fully solved: making accessibility a proactive, everyday part of online course design. With new ADA Title II standards on the horizon, we saw an opportunity—not just to meet compliance requirements, but to build something lasting and meaningful.

Enter AccessibleU—a project I had the privilege of leading, designed to empower faculty and instructional designers with the tools, training, and confidence to create courses that work for all students, from day one.

Teaching to Fish (Not Just Fixing the Pond)

We didn’t want to throw one-time solutions at the problem. We wanted to build a culture of proactive, sustainable accessibility. That meant developing a comprehensive, ADA Title II-aligned guide, and training materials in a fully accessible example course in Canvas that faculty and instructional designers could reference (and actually enjoy using).

We took a “teach-to-fish” approach: give faculty and staff the tools and knowledge to catch and correct accessibility issues themselves, rather than constantly relying on specialists to sweep in after the fact.

Building AccessibleU

Working with an incredible cross-campus team—including instructional designers, communications pros, and assistive tech specialists—we:

• Created a comprehensive, living guide grounded in accessibility best practices and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), in a robust Canvas course that models best practices in action, with ADA-compliant media, documents, assessments, and templates
• Designed quick-reference materials, training videos, and infographics to make accessibility feel achievable, not overwhelming
• Beta-tested everything with faculty and staff volunteers, including folks who use assistive technologies
• Rolled it all out as part of Digital Equity and Inclusion Week 2025

We even launched a public landing page where anyone at UMass Amherst can access the resources and learn more about the project’s goals and impact.

Empowering the People Who Make Courses Happen

One of the most rewarding aspects of AccessibleU was watching instructional designers and faculty grow in confidence. As far as possible, we focused on actionable, real-world guidance rather than legal jargon. And we showed that accessibility isn’t just a checkbox—it’s a mindset that improves the learning experience for everyone.

And while the project has wrapped, the momentum it sparked is still growing—because when accessibility becomes part of the culture, everyone benefits.