Digital Accessibility: Shifting Our Thinking

Session 1: Digital Accessibility Shifting Our Thinking from Accommodation to Access: What Equity Professionals Need to Know

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

1:00-2:30 PM ET

For too long, digital access has been treated as an accommodation issue—something addressed one request at a time, after a barrier has already harmed someone. This session invites AAAED members to reframe digital accessibility as a matter of equal access from the start: built into the systems, platforms, and content our institutions deploy, rather than retrofitted when a complaint arrives.

Attendees will learn the basics of Section 504, Title II and Title III of the ADA (including, and the DOJ's 2024 web accessibility regulations), along with how WCAG 2.1 serves as the technical standard most institutions are expected to meet. We will examine why the accommodation-only model falls short in a digital environment—where barriers in job application portals, learning platforms, HR self-service tools, and vendor systems can exclude entire groups of users before any individual request is ever made. The session will also cover where institutional responsibility begins and ends when third-party vendors are involved, and how equity professionals can partner with IT, HR, and procurement to move from reactive accommodation to proactive access.

By the end of the session, attendees will be able to recognize digital access issues earlier, respond to them appropriately, and help shift their institution's culture from "fix it when asked" to "build it accessible from the start."

Learning objectives: Understand the key laws and standards governing digital accessibility; distinguish between an accommodation-based and an access-based approach; identify opportunities to embed accessibility into institutional systems and vendor relationships.

Session 2 (Post-Session Workshop): From Access in Theory to Access in Practice: A Hands-On How-To for Equity Professionals

Thursday, June 25, 2026

1:00-2:30 PM ET

If Session 1 reframed digital accessibility as a matter of access rather than accommodation, this hands-on workshop is where that shift becomes actionable. Building access into institutional systems requires more than good intentions—it requires practical skills, the right tools, and workflows that equity professionals can use day to day.

Attendees will work through real documents and websites to consider them for accessibility. We will walk step-by-step through how to evaluate a webpage using free tools (WAVE, and built-in browser inspectors), how to navigate a site using only a keyboard.

Learning objectives: Conduct a basic accessibility evaluation using industry-standard tools.

PRESENTER

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Judy Risch, J.D., Ph.D., Advisory Services LLC

Judy is one of the nation’s foremost experts on digital accessibility. She is a twenty-year veteran of the Office of Civil Rights, including five years as Project Director of the National Digital Accessibility Task Force, where she oversaw Section 504 and ADA Title II enforcement across educational institutions and contributed to the 2024 DOJ ADA Title II digital accessibility regulation.

Judy’s practice encompasses both policy guidance and technical implementation. On the policy side she assists educational institutions with compliance guidance, civil rights investigations, institutional accessibility strategy and governance, and training for administrators, legal counsel, and IT staff. On the technical side she aids her clients with WCAG 2.0/2.1/2.2 conformance review and remediation planning, manual and automated accessibility audits (JAWS, NVDA), VPAT review, and accessible technology procurement.

PRICING

AAAED Members: $159.00

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Non-Members: $199.00