Founder of the Equal Access Cooperative at Kent State University
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE • ENTERPRISE ALIGNMENT • STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS •
CAPABILITY BUILDING • ACCESSIBILITY GOVERNANCE • SHARED OWNERSHIP
Challenge
Accessibility efforts were occurring across many departments, but ownership, knowledge, and communication were fragmented.
Strategy
Create a cross-functional partnership between technology, accessibility services, and campus stakeholders that would make accessibility more visible, approachable, and sustainable. The partnership combined Student Accessibility Services’ and Information Technology’s strengths and reflected the shared passion and cumulative institutional insight and experience of the leaders.
The core of information delivery strategy was creating content suites: different sizes of content for different contexts: “bites” for quick ads and social media, “snacks” of personal invitation emails or infographics, and “meals” such as long-form writing or remediation tutorials. Taking the right amount of information and then tailoring it for the recipient with obvious and immediate role-based application led to much greater internalization of information and resulting action.
Sustainability
Leveraging my expertise in communications strategy, branding, content development, editorial direction, and audience analytics, I established repeatable processes, templates, and communication standards that enabled others without specialized technical skills to sustain and evolve the program.
Contributing as a writer, not just editor and strategist, helped humanize our efforts and create connection to the leadership of Equal Access. People buy in to compliance when they believe in the “why”. They accept extra compliance duties when they feel a connection to those who are asking it of them.
Shared Ownership
The Equal Access Cooperative was designed to extend accessibility beyond a small centralized team. By combining the expertise, relationships, and perspectives of multiple departments, accessibility became a shared responsibility rather than the work of a handful of specialists. This distributed approach increased engagement, expanded capacity, and created stronger connections between accessibility efforts and existing organizational priorities.
Deliverable: 2025-2026 Academy Schedule
Annual accessibility academy catalog of 23 custom courses detailing the university-wide professional development program designed to build organizational accessibility capability and shared ownership.
Impact
The Cooperative evolved into a framework for awareness, education, communication, and support across the institution. Through initiatives such as the Equal Access Academy, Inside Equal Access, and collaborative resource development, accessibility became more visible, approachable, and actionable for a broad range of stakeholders. The model continued to grow through organizational change because it was built on relationships, practical support, and shared investment rather than individual ownership.
- The Equal Access Academy and Learning Hub: 23 customized learning experiences including training registration, informative content, one-pagers, and recorded sessions; voluntary participation exceeded 33% of employees over four years.
- The Inside Equal Access newsletter: monthly, inspirational storytelling and education going out to students registered with Student Accessibility Services and all Kent State staff and faculty. 9000+ recipients monthly with over 50% open rate.
Grateful Reader with ADHD
One measure of successful communication is not how many messages are sent, but whether people feel seen. This unsolicited feedback highlighted the impact of sharing authentic lived experiences and demonstrated how accessibility communications can foster understanding, reflection, and connection beyond compliance-focused messaging.
Read the Article: Intersection Alley, ADHD + Women of Color
Enterprise Risk Reduction as ADA Title II Deadline Approached
EXECUTIVE ALIGNMENT • ACCESSIBILITY GOVERNANCE • ORGANIZATIONAL MATURITY •
CHANGE LEADERSHIP • RISK MANAGEMENT • ROLE-BASED TRAINING
Compliance Risk Mitigation
Prepared the institution for the 2026 ADA Title II digital accessibility requirements by translating legal obligations into practical actions. Partnered with technology, communications, academic, and administrative stakeholders to identify risk areas, prioritize remediation efforts, and build sustainable compliance practices.
Shared Ownership
Established a cross-functional partnership model that distributed accessibility expertise beyond a single department. By engaging subject matter experts, communicators, technologists, and campus leaders, accessibility became a shared institutional responsibility rather than a siloed function.
ADA Digital Accessibility Panel Discussion
Over 200 attended the compliance messaging event with experts from Information Technology, Student Accessibility Services, the Office of General Counsel, and University Communications and Marketing. Supported by core content at the ADA Digital Accessibility Requirements page.
Capability Building
Created scalable learning pathways that equipped employees with the knowledge and tools to incorporate accessibility into their daily work. The resulting framework reduced reliance on specialized support while increasing organizational self-sufficiency.
Accessibility for Drupal Webmasters
Created tiered learning path for webmasters, 101: Intro, 201: Tools and Analytics, and 301: Strategy, to mitigate risk on the 300,000 webpages on the enterprise domain. Ran Google Analytics data to find highest performing sites and progressively invited related webmasters to a semester-long cohort.
Communications & Adoption
Developed a comprehensive communications approach that increased awareness, drove participation, and translated complex accessibility requirements into approachable, actionable guidance. Engagement metrics and feedback informed ongoing program improvements.
Institutional Readiness
Aligned training, governance, communications, and technical resources to prepare the university for significant regulatory change. The initiative created a foundation for long-term accessibility maturity while reducing institutional risk. Below is a redacted version of a L2 briefing around Kent State’s current state and a phased strategy for compliance.
Human Impact
Accessibility is ultimately about people. Through training, consultation, and community-building efforts, the initiative helped employees better understand diverse user needs and create more inclusive digital experiences while reducing enterprise risk.
Founder, Ohio Digital Accessibility Working Group (ODAWG)
COMMUNITY BUILDING • THOUGHT LEADERSHIP • CROSS-INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATION • ACCESSIBILITY STRATEGY • ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE • ENTERPRISE ALIGNMENT
Challenge
As institutions across Ohio prepared for evolving accessibility requirements, higher education professionals had limited opportunities to collaborate, share resources, and learn from one another across organizational boundaries.
Strategy
The Ohio Digital Accessibility Working Group created an ongoing forum for accessibility strategy, resource sharing, relationship building, and problem-solving across institutions. Discussions span compliance, governance, buy-in, change management, and practical implementation, helping participants learn from one another’s successes and challenges while advancing accessibility maturity throughout the state. Interest grew rapidly, with more than 150 higher education professionals joining the community during its first year.
Impact
The community grew to more than 150 professionals representing public universities, private institutions, regional campuses, community colleges, instructional design teams, accessibility offices, information technology organizations, and academic leadership groups across Ohio.
Discussions spanned compliance, governance, buy-in, change management, and practical implementation, helping participants learn from one another’s successes and challenges while advancing accessibility maturity throughout the state. Interest grew rapidly, with more than 150 higher education professionals joining the community during its first year.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
California State University at Northridge Assistive Technology Conference (CSUNATC)
- Cross-Campus Partners Launch Accessibility Training Academy
How to build a unified accessibility training framework across a large organization when dealing with constrained resources, limited subject matter expertise, and existing compliance fatigue. - Deploying Managers as Advocates of Accessible Content
How to methodically interview the supervisors of content-creating teams to understand their workflows and develop curated but low-maintenance training and new standard operating procedures. - Launching a Specialized Accessibility Training Academy When You Don’t Feel Like a Subject Matter Expert
Focused on creating Kent State’s Equal Access Academy, building cross-functional partnerships, training development, branding, and scaling accessibility education. - How To Craft Accessible, Effective Communication and Events That Break Through Information Noise And Improve Engagement
Focused on accessible communications, plain language, storytelling, event accessibility, audience engagement, and inclusive planning.
Accessing Higher Ground Conference, Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD)
- Prompt and Circumstance: How ChatGPT Increases my Capacity and Improves my Work
How to use ChatGPT as a trusted collaborator across nearly every area of accessibility work: evaluate global LMS tools, review VPATs and RFP submissions, and unpack formal accessibility complaints.
Reimagining the Academy, Miami University
- Cross-Campus Partners Launch Accessibility Training Academy
United States Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association (USETDA) Conference
- Kent State University’s Journey Toward Accessible ETDs Through Enterprise Education and Expansion
Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) Session Presenter
- The Measurable Intersection Between Digital Accessibility and Efficiency
Ohio Higher Education Computing Council (OHECC) Annual Conference
- Creating Clean and Accessible Forms