We hope you enjoy this series where we meet and get to know employees from across campus. Would you like to be featured? Contact us at campusnews@csufresno.edu.

Name: Michael J. Harding
Title: Digital Accessibility Coordinator
Department: Office of Digital Accessibility, Technology Services
Academic Degrees: Bachelor’s in English, Fresno State

How long you have worked at Fresno State? 24 years.

What is your most notable accomplishment in your field, and why was it important? Under the direction of the former Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Orlando Leon, I was tasked with building a digital accessibility office from scratch in January 2020. This new office would focus on all administrative-side accessibility efforts and support any accessibility efforts on the academic side as needed. As of July 2021, the Office of Digital Accessibility has launched. The office was built while work-from-home and at a time when CSU budgets were impacted. In such a circumstance, the office came into being through executive support, consultation with accessibility champions campuswide and nationwide, shared vision work, ingenuity, and the diligent efforts of my right-hand-man, Digital Accessibility Specialist David Unruh. In November 2021, I was honored to be named to the Educause I.T. Accessibility Steering Committee. I spend a lot of time volunteering with Educause to support their mission of supporting higher education with information technology.

What are you most passionate about in your field and why? Accessibility. Accessibility. Accessibility. In 2003, I had a stroke. In October 2010, I had a major car accident. As a result of both incidents, I have 90% hearing loss in my left ear, and 25% in my right ear and an auditory processing disorder. In early 2020, I got devastatingly sick and have been working from my bed most days during the pandemic. It’s one thing for me to say that accessibility is my job; it’s another to say it’s my mission and I am an empathetic champion for its successful implementation and improvement across the entire Fresno State campus community. Our services are my tools to help me connect with others, and everyone with each other, equitably.

What is a memorable moment you had at your job? I’ve always enjoyed the creativity of the Bold Ideas Challenge and CAIFE (Creativity And Innovation For Effectiveness). In 2016 and 2018, I had the pleasure of being a Bold Ideas Challenge winner (student assistant mentorship) and a CAIFE participant (accessibility resource center). It always amazes me how there is so much engagement and ingenuity to be leveraged by the exceptional people of our campus. It is my hope that these initiatives will continue to grow and evolve and meet the future needs of our campus.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? Cooking, writing, tailoring, tennis, volleyball, basketball, disc golf, karaoke, pub quiz, traveling, learning languages, mentoring, concerts, eating garlic fries at a baseball game.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? I love Shakespeare. That's why I got a degree in English and a minor in theater. I was going to go to Notre Dame for the master’s in literature program, but found it very cost prohibitive, so I took a tech job at Fresno State. I used to do any Shakespeare show that would pop up locally, but after my stroke and hearing loss — I just became too self-conscious to re-engage. I really miss it.

I’m also re-engaging in an “old-new” hobby since the pandemic hit — bespoke tailoring. My mom was a seamstress when I was a kid and I paid attention. We used to make custom button down shirts together and I want to develop that skill again.

Is there something else you would like to share that was not asked? I consider myself a humble servant leader. Spiritually, I'm a proud Christian, as well as a Buddhist and Taoist. I suppose that informs my leadership and communication style — "listening" first, building team collaboration, investing in the virtues of shared success and creating paths to employee career development. When I was the Help Desk lead back in 2008, what made me the proudest was how each team member engaged with their customers and co-workers, how willing they were to share their passion and ideas and how we were able to collaborate together on developing their career. I am happy to see that people I’ve hired have successfully moved into information security, systems administration, desktop support, web development and service desk administration.

At the end of the day, I don’t want to be a person who made myself taller standing on the shoulders of others. I just want to be a shepherd and care for the flock.

I’m also a member of the Educause Mentoring Program. If you are interested in being mentored by me, or just want to talk about career development, email me, or visit http://mentoring.educause.edu.