August digital accessibility task force update

A letter from Provost Jesse Perez Mendez and Vice President Thomas Lane

Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

Dear colleagues,

As we wind down the first week of fall classes, we are taking a moment to look ahead, providing you with the latest update in regard to the efforts of our digital accessibility task force.

Earlier this summer, we announced that integrations were underway for our two primary remediation tools, and we wanted to provide you with the latest information on their respective roll-outs.

Academic content remediation: Anthology Ally

Just two weeks ago, our primary academic content remediation tool, Ally, was officially launched within both the credit and noncredit instances of Canvas. This marks a significant milestone in providing faculty and course instructors with a powerful tool that assesses existing course content within Canvas, provides corresponding accessibility scores and cues for remediation prioritization, and offers instructions for how faculty and course instructors can remediate content most effectively.

  • The instructional design team within the Center for Academic Innovation has launched a series of workshops and trainings for how to engage with Ally directly within Canvas, as well as how to create accessible content in general.
  • There are numerous resources available on the Academic Affairs and Innovation website, including tips for how to master accessible course design, an accessibility checklist chock-full of resources, and an Ally for Canvas page with guides and details to help faculty and course instructors engage with Ally within their Canvas course.
  • And if at any time you need assistance with your use of Ally, we encourage you to join instructional design office hours Tuesdays, 2-3 p.m., or Wednesdays, 1:30-2:30 p.m., via Zoom or email allyhelp@ksu.edu.

Web content remediation: Siteimprove

System configuration continues to advance with our web content remediation tool, Siteimprove, which is a cloud-based software that will ultimately be available to content management system, or CMS, users via single sign-on. Siteimprove will provide accessibility scores for content on K-State’s websites, also offering prioritization cues and content remediation guidance, in addition to providing a whole other suite of tools to enhance K-State’s web presence at large.

  • The web services team within the Division of Communications and Marketing is currently organizing K-State websites by content volume, building groups within the Siteimprove system, and preparing for a coordinated roll-out of access based on site volume — more information to come on that next month.
  • In the meantime, the web services team has also remediated system-level web accessibility issues and will proceed with a republish of the entire university web presence in batches over the course of the next month to deploy those enhancements.
  • Additionally, they will be hosting a preview of the Siteimprove system at an upcoming meeting for CMS users. Further details will be shared in the coming months on additional trainings and workshops to come.

Task force next steps

We wish to thank all who have partnered with our task force members and implementation teams to make these system launches a reality: University Purchasing, Information Technology, Academic Affairs and Innovation, including the instructional design team within the Center for Academic Innovation, the Student Access Center, the Division of Communications and Marketing, and more. This is a big step forward in our digital accessibility journey — but there is more to come.

The task force remains focused on its related charges of policy review and development, filling any other gaps in our tools and resources as possible, expanding trainings, and elevating its recommendations for permanent oversight over institutional digital accessibility. We appreciate their continued efforts.

We want to again share a heartfelt thank you to all faculty and staff — your engagement in and support for this monumental, institutionwide effort is inspiring, as it will truly take us all to move the needle on digital accessibility compliance. We appreciate your efforts, adaptability, and above all, your steadfast dedication to our institutional mission of access.

Go 'Cats!

Jesse Perez Mendez
Provost and executive vice president

Thomas Lane
Vice president for academic success and student affairs and dean of students