Watch a faculty discussion about Digital Accessibility and the Courses We Teach
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
Thanks to everyone who attended our Faculty Forum on Friday, April 17th on accessibility concerns and opportunities.
Participating faculty told stories about their different approaches to improving the accessibility of their classes, while Brad Starkey-Owens, the Digital Accessibility Program Manager for the UC Davis Office of Compliance and Policy, shared the good news that the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has extended the compliance dates for the requirements for web content accessibility to April 26, 2027. Our focus on digital accessibility of teaching sites and materials will continue, but we still appreciate the additional breathing room.
Enjoy this short preview video before you review the full recording of our Faculty Forum.
Please plan to join us every first and third Friday of the month at noon (via Zoom) for forums like this one, including our next DOLCE on May 1st. We will all learn more if you can join us.
Dr. Andy Jones
Academic Director, Academic Technology Services
Editor in Chief, The Wheel
University of California, Davis
Access the Zoom chat from the event.
Selected resources / links shared during the event
- Digital Accessibility at UC Davis
- New federal guidance (as of this morning; will be officially published Mon, April 20, 2026)
- Canvas’ built-in accessibility checker - it’s a great place to start with Canvas content
- Note that it doesn’t handle PDFs, so the PDF remediation tool mentioned below will still be needed.
- Release notes for more features coming out 4/18/2026: https://community.instructure.com/en/discussion/665547/canvas-release-notes-2026-04-18
- Recommended PDF workflow
- Readable: UC Davis PDF remediation tool
- Brad hosts weekly office hours - Wednesdays at 1pm
- UCOP has monthly office hours: website says monthly through April - likely to be extended, given extended deadline
- Miriam Markum’s slides
Image by Lubos Houska from Pixabay