The COVID-19 pandemic required a quick and significant transition from onsite in-person work, learning, or social interactions, to working, learning, or socializing remotely and through digital means. The university’s collective efforts were successful in maintaining its operations and fulfilling its mission, but the experience uncovered digital inequities for individuals with disabilities. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we realize that operating through digital modes of communication offers many benefits and flexibility and is likely to continue to be a mainstay of how we live, work, and learn. In line with our values of diversity and inclusion, this presentation focuses on the need to be intentional in valuing the diverse needs of individuals with disabilities. We will share best practices, practical applications, and campuswide resources for creating and delivering accessible digital resources and technology for students, faculty, staff, and the broader community.
Speakers:
• Sandi Arendalkowski is the Digital Accessibility Program coordinator at the UW–Madison Center for User Experience in the Division of Information Technology. She works with campus partners to raise university capacity to support digital accessibility at all levels of the university. She has been an inclusive designer for more than six years, was a business analyst for seven years, and worked in a compliance area for 10 years. She holds a master’s in interaction design & information architecture from the University of Baltimore and a graduate certificate in information accessibility design & policy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
• Jess Jones is interim director for the Center for User Experience, a unit within the Division of Information Technology that works with campus partners to understand and take informed action on the needs of their constituents, including digital accessibility. Through evaluation, research, and strategy, the program’s goal is to make our digital campus more human-centered and inclusive. Jones is also co-lead for the UW Women+ in IT committee. Prior to joining the Center for User Experience, she worked as a user experience designer, and for the Department of Engineering Professional Development in the UW–Madison College of Engineering. She holds a master’s in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University.
• Ruben Mota, Ph.D., serves as the Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator for UW–Madison, collaborating and coordinating with campus partners to ensure UW is continually striving for access and inclusivity for individuals with disabilities. Prior to joining the Office of Compliance, Dr. Mota worked on campus at the McBurney Disability Resource Center as an associate director for student services and assistant director of accommodation services from 2013 to 2020. Previously, he was the head of student support services and director of learning support at two international schools in Switzerland. He holds master’s in teaching with special education endorsement from the University of Washington-Seattle and a doctorate in leadership and educational administration from Capella University.
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The 2021 UW–Madison Diversity Forum, “Rising Above and Reshaping our World in the Image of Justice,” was held as a hybrid conference on Nov. 2 & 3 with Dr. Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, and Steven Canals, co-creator of “Pose,” as keynote presenters.
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