Back in 2007, when April Hill, Ph.D., assistant chair of Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Department of Chemistry, first started working with a blind student who was pursuing his doctorate in Chemistry, “there was not a lot of content online,” she said. “We were still using paper tests, printing everything.”
Then at Penn State University, Hill had a grant to make curriculum more broadly accessible — a fairly new concept in those days and one that was still not yet widely accepted. In fact, at a conference, another professor — a man who had a similar grant — told her she was wasting her time. “He told me, ‘That’s just not safe; blind students can’t be in a lab,’” she said. “That made me so angry! What a dismissive attitude.”
It’s an attitude that has been changing. And must change. Under a U.S. Department of Justice rule, based on the Americans With Disabilities Act, all university digital content must be fully accessible by April 24, 2026. Institutions in areas with smaller populations have an additional year to comply.
Fortunately, there are many more resources available to instructors now than there were when Hill first met her blind student. Especially for instructors at MSU Denver, where the Instructional Accessibility Group, part of MSU Denver’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Design, are ready to solve problems and connect faculty members with the resources they need.
“Our goal is to support faculty members as they make content accessible to students of all ability levels,” said Zach Clark, who leads the IAG. “We want students to be able to access content regardless of physical or mental abilities.”
Students who have physical or learning disabilities are encouraged to register with the MSU Denver Access Center. When they do, they open the door to a process designed to make learning easier. That includes coordinating with faculty members to understand the student’s needs.
For faculty, the counterpart resource for accessibility assistance is the IAG. “We’re on the faculty side, making sure faculty members get what they need,” Clark said.
Vision impairment is one of the most common disabilities the IAG works with. Often, creating accessibility for those students means creating proper captions for all videos that are part of content. But frequently, an accessibility solution for one student can aid another. For example, captions also help filter out excess visual noise for students with attention deficit disorder, colorblindness and other difficulties.
Chemistry professor April Hill, Ph.D., in the lab. Photo by Josh Geurink
Resources for serving students with disabilities have evolved tremendously since Hill started working with her Ph.D. student, who earned his degree and now operates a company that provides products to other visually impaired science students.
But the challenges students face can be as many and varied as the classes they’re taking. Part of the magic that MSU Denver’s IAG works is connecting faculty members with a vast array of resources. Sometimes, the remedy can be found and implemented in a few minutes; other times, it’s more complicated.
The staff is available Monday through Friday, and faculty members can set up an IAG consultation online or with a phone call. In addition, the CTLD regularly offers accessibility trainings online.
Clark and Hill agree that creating accessibility for all students can be intimidating but doesn’t have to be. “I don’t think anyone expects anyone to be perfect,” Hill said. “That’s something I’m still working on after 20 years.”
