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Thriving Together: Building and Sustaining an Accessibility Champions Program Across Your Organization

Handouts

Presented at 11:30 am in Penrose 2 on Friday, November 21, 2025.

#41112

Speaker(s)

  • Kristine Faxon, Digital Accessibility Program Manager, City of Boulder

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Learn how to create and sustain an Accessibility Champions Program that builds shared ownership of accessibility. Using the City of Boulder’s model, this session offers practical strategies for recruiting, supporting, and energizing champions across departments, with tools you can adapt for higher ed or other sectors.

Abstract

Creating an inclusive digital environment takes more than technical expertise—it requires building a network of accessibility advocates across an organization. This session will provide a practical roadmap for launching and sustaining an Accessibility Champions Program that supports compliance and drives culture change.

Using the City of Boulder’s program as a case study, we'll explore how champions can act as connectors, communicators, and peer resources to embed accessibility into daily operations. While Boulder is a local government, the structure easily adapts to higher education environments facing similar staffing, training, and coordination challenges.

The session will cover how to define clear, achievable expectations for champions, including time commitments, communication roles, and training participation. We’ll discuss strategies for recruiting champions across diverse departments, supporting them with tools and templates, and designing meetings that maintain momentum over time.

Attendees will also learn ways to support sustainability, such as creating feedback loops, offering recognition, and evolving the program to match organizational needs. Real-world examples will highlight both successes and challenges, offering a realistic view of what it takes to keep a champions network thriving.

Participants will leave with sample resources and actionable ideas to create or refresh their own program, whether starting from scratch or reinvigorating an existing effort.

This session is ideal for accessibility coordinators, digital inclusion leads, and anyone responsible for embedding accessibility practices in a distributed, resource-limited environment. Building a champions network is a people-centered strategy that scales accessibility work beyond a central role and team—and helps ensure that accessibility becomes everyone's responsibility.

Keypoints

  1. A champions network scales accessibility by embedding advocates across departments.
  2. Clear roles and realistic expectations keep champions engaged and effective long term.
  3. Regular connection, recognition, and feedback are essential to program sustainability.

Disability Areas

All Areas

Topic Areas

Other, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Kristine Faxon

Kristine Faxon is the Digital Accessibility Program Manager for the City of Boulder, where she leads initiatives to create inclusive, accessible digital environments for all users. Prior to her transition into accessibility, Kristine spent more than a decade in marketing and communications, including leadership roles at New York University and the University of Colorado Boulder. Throughout her career, she has built integrated marketing campaigns, advanced digital engagement strategies, and driven adoption of new technologies to better serve diverse communities.

Kristine holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Writing/Communications from Ithaca College and a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing with a digital concentration from NYU. A frequent speaker in the higher education space, she is passionate about the intersection of communication, technology, and accessibility.

Handout(s)