For Mellisa Jessen-Hiser in the Richter Center, prioritizing accessibility means being able to serve all students. When she learned about the CSU web accessibility training through Campus News, she jumped at the opportunity to learn more.

“By not making accessibility a priority, I’m not serving ALL of our students and this is something I’d like to remedy as soon as possible,” said Jessen-Hiser. “In my role, I also work with student assistants and student leaders and I want to model for them the importance of accessibility and be able to coach them, as well as my colleagues, in ways to make our programs and information accessible to all.”

Jessen-Hiser isn’t alone in her goal to improve accessibility at Fresno State. 41 staff and faculty members across campus signed up for the training when it was first announced by the Chancellor’s Office in March.

Another one of those who signed up was Barbara Windmiller from the Library Administration Office. Word documents, PDFs and PowerPoint presentations are a core part of her work, so she saw the training as an important learning opportunity. Now, she’s already seeing the benefits.

“As I was working on a PowerPoint yesterday, I stopped to realize that I was using only color to convey information, and made changes to the slide to correct that,” said Windmiller. “Even though this PowerPoint will not be distributed publicly, I think making sure that the products of our work are accessible should become second nature.”

Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Orlando Leon says the response to the training shows the growing commitment from the campus to serve as allies to students and colleagues who rely on accessibility standards to work and learn.

“Every single one of us can be an ally to help create a more inclusive campus and community,” said Leon. “The importance of accessible technology will only continue to grow as digital communications increase. It’s critical that we all do our part to keep our content accessible to all. This helps create a more equitable environment for the entire campus community.”