I see a11y as a basic human right. The moment I saw disability through the lens of the social model, I wanted to be part of the ongoing process of removing barriers that restrict choices of disabled people. 

We are all responsible to create societies in which all individuals enjoy their rights to a meaningful societal, political, economic, social, and cultural life.

In the Online Learning Environments at the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, we create web content on a daily basis. Creating this web content, our online courses, with accessibility in mind, contributes to our dedication to inclusive, high-quality education. 

In a way, getting the CPACC was part of the natural process of adopting accessibility in our daily work and planning processes. 

In addition of the altruistic benefits, for me the CPACC skills are an important and practical way to contribute to the work we do.

As someone who works in all the classrooms across campus, I wanted to ensure these spaces are inclusive to all. By taking this course I have a deeper understanding of disability to ensure everyone has the same experience while using them. CPACC certification will allow me to view these spaces from a different perspective.

How you think about disability shapes beliefs, feelings and behaviors towards those with disabilities. Getting a comprehensive picture and approaching the subject in a variety of ways gives us the best chance to create an effective system to best apply to our understanding and outlook. 

I originally became interested in accessibility when I started learning more about equity. I felt that any society that doesn’t put in the effort to give everyone a chance to participate is failing. I began working on making my own web sites more accessible and began to participate in various meetups. One meetup that was really an awakening moment was when we had people from the NJ Division of the Blind come by and an actual blind user did a demonstration of accessing a web site with his screenreader. Seeing how awful an experience some web sites are for disabled users was something I figured I could contribute to fixing, at least for web sites I am responsible for. So now every time we add a new feature or functionality to our web application, accessibility is one of the first things we consider in the design phase. We have been going through a review process with Perkins Access to ensure that we are meeting our goals for accessibility.