Providing accessible digital content for everyone, including people with disabilities, supports the University of Iowa's obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Accessible content ensures that all individuals can fully and effectively participate in university programs and services. 

The Digital Accessibility Liaisons program strengthens our capacity to provide accessible content by fostering awareness, understanding, and practical skills across campus and within local units.

How the program works

At the core of the Liaisons program is localizing accessibility awareness and practice in each Liaison’s sponsoring unit. Digital Accessibility Liaisons are appointed by their unit leadership to take part in the Liaisons program. Your participation in the Liaisons cohort constitutes an assignment from your supervisor or unit leadership.

Participation and structure

The Digital Accessibility Liaisons program is supported by the Office of Civil Rights Compliance. The Digital Accessibility Coordinator facilitates monthly meetings and provides guidance and support to the Liaison community.

The Role of a Digital Accessibility Liaison

Digital Accessibility Liaisons help build accessibility capacity within their units by serving as local points of contact and connecting unit staff with campus accessibility resources and expertise. Because every unit has different technologies, priorities, and workflows, the Liaison's role may look different from one area to the next.

The responsibilities of a Digital Accessibility Liaison vary from one unit to another. Depending on the needs and priorities of the sponsoring unit, a Liaison might:

• Serve as the unit's first point of contact for accessibility questions and issues.
• Perform basic accessibility testing and remediation of unit technologies and digital content.
• Escalate accessibility issues to appropriate campus resources.
• Oversee the Siteimprove Accessibility module for unit websites, where applicable.
• Coordinate accessibility efforts within the unit.
• Connect colleagues with campus accessibility resources and expertise.

All Digital Accessibility Liaisons are asked to complete Accessibility 101, a foundational ICON course introducing digital accessibility concepts, university policy, and the campus resources available to support accessibility efforts.

Each individual who provides, assigns, procures, develops, selects, or oversees a digital asset is accountable for the accessibility of that asset. This includes service owners, faculty and staff, content providers, web and application developers, and others who provide digital technology to conduct university business. 

Within their units, Digital Accessibility Liaisons support local accessibility efforts in ways that reflect the unit's responsibilities, technologies, and priorities. As accessibility needs vary across campus, the role of a Liaison may look different from one unit to another. For complex accessibility issues, Liaisons may request support from the Digital Accessibility Coordinator.

Under the Liaison support model, a unit identifies one or more individuals to act as a local point of contact for accessibility issues. The responsibilities of a Digital Accessibility Liaison vary from one unit to another and should reflect the unit's accessibility needs, priorities, and technologies.

Through monthly meetings and self-paced learning, Liaisons build skills and knowledge to support accessibility issues within their unit. Colleagues in the Liaison’s unit can contact the Liaison directly with accessibility questions or support needs and the Liaison can address the issue or escalate to the Digital Accessibility Coordinator. This approach removes support bottlenecks by decentralizing Tier 1 and other accessibility support requests.