Charging ahead: New opportunities to rapidly advance digital accessibility

A letter from Provost Jesse Perez Mendez and Vice President Thomas Lane.
Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to share some phenomenal updates regarding Kansas State University's digital accessibility journey — your individual efforts coupled with the ongoing work of the digital accessibility task force are driving us forward and markedly advancing our mission of access.

Advancing course accessibility

Since the start of the semester, faculty have diligently worked on their individual course content with the support of the Ally for Canvas tool and trainings and workshops hosted by the instructional design team within the Center for Academic Innovation. The results are evident. Two examples of rapid advancement include the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Staley School of Leadership, both of which increased their collective score by approximately 20 percent. Additionally, the College of Technology and Aviation in Salina also made significant progress, achieving an increase of approximately 10 percent.

These numbers are not small feats — and they would not be possible without the efforts of individual faculty members driving the work forward. As such, we'd like to lift up two outstanding stories of individual accomplishment within two additional academic colleges:

• Darren Epping-Fuentes, instructor and associate director for undergraduate programs and engagement in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences, finalized a public speaking course that is now 100 percent digitally accessible, reaching 835 students across 34 sections!
• Jenna Gannon, instructor in special education, counseling, and student affairs within the College of Education, implemented fixes that raised a course accessibility score by a remarkable 39 points in under a week — absolutely incredible!

If these numbers stoke your competitive fire, we have a great opportunity for you to attend Fix Your Content Day on Tuesday, Nov. 18. Mark your calendar to participate in this 24-hour, worldwide competition among institutions using Ally, offering dedicated time and space to advance accessibility within your courses — and with great reward. Departments are encouraged to participate and achieve an 85% average Ally score across their fall courses. Departments that reach a 90% average Ally score by November 21 will earn a free lunch in celebration of their efforts.

Advancing website accessibility

To date, more than 130 users have been integrated into Siteimprove, the university's tool designed to further enhance our website accessibility. The web services team within the Division of Communications and Marketing continues to grant access to primary site owners and has configured the system to drive prioritization. They will also be hosting four working sessions over the next two months.

These Web Accessibility Working Sessions are not structured training sessions; they are dedicated times for site owners to focus on and prioritize advancing their site accessibility without distraction and with a community of support around them. Site owners are encouraged to block their calendar where they can and participate in one or all sessions:

• In-person sessions in Dole Hall: We have blocked space for folks to leave their office environments, join others working on the same effort, and have easy access to the Web Services team for help and assistance on:
  • Friday, Nov. 7
  • Friday, Dec. 5

• Virtual sessions: If you prefer to work from your current location, we've got you covered —a drop-in Zoom meeting will be open all day, should you have a quick question. Virtual sessions will be on:
  • Friday, Nov. 21
  • Monday, Dec. 15

For more information on these sessions, please visit the Division of Communications and Marketing’s web accessibility page.

Continued task force efforts

As the semester progresses, the task force will introduce proposed policy changes through the university's governance processes, work through the purchasing process for final remediation tools where additional needs have been identified, and collaborate with staff to ensure they are prepared for document remediation efforts. Additionally, many new resources have been added to the Resources and Tools page of the task force website, offering guidance and resources for how to create accessible content.

Once more, thank you for all the effort and dedication everyone is providing to this important work. It's amazing watching this community come together and advance our mission of access in such a demonstrable way.

Go ‘Cats!

Jesse Perez Mendez
Provost and executive vice president

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