#43287
Speaker(s)
- Eudora Struble, Director, Technology Accessibility, Wake Forest University
- Judith Risch, Judith Risch, J.D., Ph.D., Principal; Title IX & Equity / Access Services Special Advisor (Grand River), Judith Risch Advisory Services; Grand River Solutions
Session Details
- Length of Session: 1-hr
- Format: Lecture
- Expertise Level: Intermediate
- Type of session: General Conference
Summary
Digital accessibility is often framed as binary: compliant or not. In practice, no institution maintains perfect conformance across every page, document, tool, and integration. This session reframes accessibility as a risk-management discipline instead of a compliance checkbox. Attendees will leave with practical ways to prioritize remediation, communicate realistic plans to leaders, and make defensible decisions when content volume, vendor limits, and resources make "100% accessible" impossible.
Abstract
Anyone who has worked in digital accessibility for more than a few months knows a quiet truth: perfection is not possible. Higher education institutions manage tens of thousands of web pages, hundreds of third-party tools, decades of legacy PDFs, faculty-authored content that changes daily, and vendor platforms we cannot directly fix. Automated tools catch only a fraction of issues, WCAG conformance is a moving target, and the gap between "technically compliant" and "actually usable" is wide.
Yet our internal messaging, vendor contracts, and public statements often imply full conformance is one project away. When something inevitably slips — an inaccessible PDF, a broken video player, a vendor tool that fails for screen reader users — institutions focused on perfection react with alarm or freeze instead of taking a measured response.
This session argues that digital accessibility is best understood and managed as a risk discipline, similar to information security or financial compliance. We will examine where the perfection myth comes from, why it sets teams up to fail, and how to build a program that acknowledges imperfection while still driving meaningful, measurable improvement for users with disabilities.
Drawing on lessons from security risk frameworks, the current legal landscape (e.g., DOJ Title II web rule, OCR resolution agreements, ADA Title III litigation trends), and real-world program management, we’ll work through practical tools like: severity-and-impact matrices, triage tiers, vendor risk assessment, documentation that holds up under scrutiny, and language for honest conversations with leadership, faculty, and procurement.
Attendees will leave with a vocabulary and toolkit for moving their programs from defensively chasing perfection to proactive, prioritized, defensible risk management — work that ultimately serves users with disabilities better than the pursuit of an unreachable ideal.
Keypoints
- Perfect digital accessibility conformance is structurally unachievable at the scale higher education operates.
- Risk-based triage prioritizes accessibility work more effectively than compliance-checklist thinking.
- Documented good-faith decisions are the strongest defense under OCR investigation or ADA litigation.
Disability Areas
All Areas
Topic Areas
Accessibility and Accommodation in the Current Political/Legal Environment, Campus & System-wide initiatives, Legal, Procurement, Uncategorized, Web/Media/App Access
Speaker Bio(s)
Eudora Struble
Eudora Struble is Director for Technology Accessibility at Wake Forest University, facilitating engagement to make Wake’s vibrant digital environment more accessible for the entire community. Her work expands the accessibility skills and awareness of staff, faculty, and students, and informs campus strategy and policy. Eudora currently serves as Co-chair and a member of the Steering Committee for the EDUCAUSE IT Access Community Group and is co-chair of the North Carolina Higher Ed Digital Accessibility Collaborative.
Judith Risch
Judy is one of the nation’s foremost experts on digital accessibility. She is a twenty-year veteran of the Office of Civil Rights, including five years as Project Director of the National Digital Accessibility Task Force, where she oversaw Section 504 and ADA Title II enforcement across educational institutions and contributed to the 2024 DOJ ADA Title II digital accessibility regulation.