Accessibility is more than a checklist

Last fall, the University at Buffalo School of Social Work initiated an innovative micro-credential called Creating ADA-Compliant Documents to help current students better understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As organizations work to comply with federal Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the course provides students with important skills for their social work careers, while also helping the school ensure its learning materials are inclusive and accessible to all.

“I support our faculty, and particularly adjuncts, by ensuring their course content is fully accessible,” says Steven Sturman, instructional designer at the School of Social Work. “When we started to brainstorm how to help faculty meet WCAG standards, we realized we could leverage SUNY’s agreement with Deque University to teach our students essential digital skills while also creating a pool of talented individuals who could help us remediate files.”

Sturman, along with Berg Miller, digital accessibility micro-credential project manager, reviewed Deque’s accessibility courses and customized a self-paced student curriculum.

Using Brightspace, students can launch the training, upload certificates of completion and track course milestones. Once students complete the required Deque modules, they are assigned inaccessible documents, often older PDF files, to remediate and prove their competency.

“I was excited to learn about this program and hoped it would strengthen my technology skills and deepen my understanding of accessibility,” says DSW candidate Melissa Elliott-Brogan, LCSW-R. “The courses clearly explained basic concepts and provided practical tools to build accessible documents from the start rather than attempting to retrofit them later.”

Elliott-Brogan, who owns Sardonyx Wellness, a group practice on Long Island, says the program gave her the technical skills to provide an equitable, accessible experience for her clients.

“I gained a new appreciation for how design choices — such as certain colors, images missing alternative text, a lack of headings and more — could unintentionally create barriers to participation and learning,” she says. “While I anticipated using the skills I learned to support accessibility, inclusivity and belonging during my doctoral studies, I am already applying them in my clinical practice for client-facing documents.”

The accessibility micro-credential aligns with the School of Social Work’s mission and values — and social work values more broadly. In total, 11 students earned the micro-credential in fall 2025, with 14 students enrolled this spring.

People Inc. serves as presenting sponsor, allowing the school to provide financial stipends for participants.

“The School of Social Work and Dean Keith Alford are very committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” says Heather Cruz, vice dean and chief of staff. “With this student-focused program, we can further elevate accessibility and provide technical skills and training for our students, while also developing capacity for the school. We were happy to offer stipends to several students last fall and now, thanks to People Inc., we can support additional students, and some of their staff can receive accessibility training as well.”

MSW student Fardowsa Aden wanted to participate in this micro-credential after learning, during her second practicum experience at People Inc., that creating accessible materials isn’t just a technical skill but an ethical responsibility too.

“Accessibility connects to social work practice beyond documents,” Aden says. “It is not just about files — accessibility is about how we communicate, how we design services and how we create environments where all individuals feel included. This micro-credential reinforced that accessibility is a form of advocacy supporting social justice values.”

Currently, the micro-credential is available exclusively for School of Social Work graduate students, but it’s quickly turning into a model across the SUNY system.

“We were thrilled to see the excitement from our students,” Sturman says. “Since the launch, other UB departments and even SUNY colleagues are asking how to develop similar programs. So, we are now investigating how to expand and share more broadly to help other campuses create their own digital accessibility programs.”