An Accessibility Checking Platform Made by Universities for Universities

Scheduled at 9:45 in Independence on Thursday, November 19.

Speaker(s)

• Lucy Greco, Accessibility Evangelist, University of Illinois at Chicago

Session Details

• Length of Session: 1-hr
• Format: Interactive/Discussion
• Expertise Level: All Levels
• Type of session: General Conference

Summary

The University of Illinois at Chicago has created its own accessibility testing platform. Join us to see how an accessibility testing platform made by a university might work for your university.

Abstract

For years, higher education has struggled to monitor and benchmark accessibility in our digital environments—until now. We've been forced to use tools built for giant corporations, designed to manage a handful of massive websites run by small, highly technical teams. These tools are costly, complicated, and simply not built with universities in mind. At the University of Illinois Chicago, we've teamed up with Equalify to create a testing tool and dashboard that finally meets the unique needs of higher education today.

Equalify is an open-source dashboard that empowers our organization to not only teach and test for accessibility, but also to gain rapid, actionable insights through tailored dashboards. Ever wondered what the most common accessibility issue is across your institution? Or which website has made the most—or least—progress over the last six months? These are the types of insights we’re building right into Equalify. By collaborating directly with Equalify’s developers, we’re getting features and functionality that mainstream accessibility checkers simply don’t provide. This talk will give you a look at the features currently available in Equalify, as well as what’s coming soon on our roadmap. We'll also show how other universities can jump in—whether to contribute, customize, or use Equalify for themselves.

We'll dive into the many ways the community can get involved. As an open-source project, Equalify makes it easy for institutions to get started—and if you need more, you can add your own features and share back, improving the tool for everyone. Join us to see if Equalify is the right fit for your university and discover how open-source software can transform accessibility in higher education.

Keypoints

1. Current testing tools do not have educational tools in mind, Equalify does.
2. Digital Accessibility teams should include people with disabilities and most testing tools do not work well.
3. Equalify is open source, so you can help report issues and contribute to improvements.

Disability Areas

All Areas

Topic Areas

Uncategorized, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

Lucy Greco

Blind since birth, Lucy Greco began using computers in 1985 and quickly recognized their transformative power. As a college student, having her own computer meant she could write and submit papers independently—no extensions, no intermediaries. It was a game-changer at a time when most blind students lacked access to such tools.

Through early adoption of assistive technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) and scanners, Lucy saw firsthand how tech could open doors for people with disabilities. After college, she pivoted from her initial interests in literature and physical therapy to pursue a career in accessible technology.

Over the years, Lucy became a go-to resource for questions like:

How can I use email as a blind person? What’s the best way to navigate a word processor without hands? Is my web page easy to use by people with disabilities? How can I make sure my application can be used by a person with disabilities? Driven by curiosity and a deep commitment to inclusion, Lucy dedicated herself to finding answers—and building solutions.

In 2005, she joined the UC Berkeley Disabled Students Program as an Assistive Technology Specialist. For eight years, she worked closely with hundreds of students, helping them identify and use the right tools to meet academic and accessibility requirements.

In 2012, Lucy transitioned to the UC Berkeley web services team, where she took on the role of Web Accessibility Evangelist. She later became chair of the UC Electronic Accessibility Committee, leading efforts to make digital spaces more inclusive across the University of California system.