About Accessible Technology Services

This event was sponsored by UW Accessible Technology Services (ATS) at the University of Washington (UW), a UW-IT (University of Washington Information Technology) unit that consists of both the IT Accessibility Team (ITAT) and DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology). The meeting was facilitated by Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler, the director of ATS, and Terrill Thompson, manager of ITAT. ATS’s two centers are dedicated to empowering people with disabilities through technology and education. They promote awareness and accessibility to maximize the potential of individuals with disabilities and make our communities more vibrant, diverse, and inclusive.

The DO-IT Center strives to

  • increase the success of people with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers;
  • promote the application of universal design to physical spaces, information technology, instruction, and services;
  • freely distribute online content, publications, and videos for use in presentations, exhibits, and the classroom; and
  • provide resources for students with disabilities, K-12 educators, postsecondary faculty and administrators, librarians, employers, parents, and mentors.

ITAT serves to ensure that UW students, faculty, and staff with disabilities have access to technology that helps them accomplish their work. ITAT staff provide consultation and support to the UW community to help ensure that websites, documents, videos, software, and other technologies are accessible.

They also provide trainings, develop and maintain helpful resources such as the Accessible Technology website (uw.edu/accessibility), and offer captioning and accessibility remediation services for high impact videos and PDFs respectively.

ITAT staff work collaboratively with IT vendors to help them to provide products and services that meet the UW's accessibility standards. In 2020, they collaborated with 30 vendors including WorkDay, Microsoft, Google, Panopto, Zoom, Instructure, and many others.