Digital Accessibility Liaisons

Interested in becoming a liaison? We welcome anyone at Carolina to join our Microsoft Team.
Join the Digital Accessibility Liaisons Microsoft Team

What we do

Digital Accessibility Liaisons (DAL) advocate for accessibility in all aspects of campus life. We promote digital accessibility by learning about, sharing, and supporting the work of the Digital Accessibility Office (DAO).

Our goals include:

• acting as the main contact for digital accessibility questions and issues in our department or unit.
• communicating digital accessibility policies, standards, and related information.
• attending monthly meetings and interacting with fellow liaisons via Microsoft Teams.
• tracking metrics that illustrate improvements to digital accessibility.

Now that digital accessibility is on my radar, I can’t stop thinking about it. It has become part of me. I feel that I have become an even stronger advocate and now I can back up my beliefs with skills to help my colleagues.
-Christine Harradine, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

Monthly Meetings

Our monthly meetings are opportunities to learn about accessibility-related topics. We meet online via Zoom, so it’s easy to join in the conversation during a busy workday.

Liaison leaders plan the meetings based on feedback from liaisons. They invite guest speakers from on and off campus to share their ideas and experiences. Some past meetings included:

• a presentation by the Digital Accessibility Office on alternative text including a video demo of screen readers.
• guest speakers from Caption Perfect, a local live captioning company, about how their jobs have changed since the start of the pandemic.
• guest speaker from George Mason University about their digital accessibility strategic plan and their “accessibility as a service” model.
• assistive technology demonstrations by the North Carolina Assistive Technology Program (NCATP).

I was largely clueless about the hurdles blocking equitable access to internet and other digital resources… Once I knew the challenges, and our obligations to alleviate them, I worked to learn as much as I could. That led to me becoming a Digital Accessibility Liaison.
-Donna Nixon, Katherine R. Everett Law Library

Who we are

Each liaison is a volunteer who wants to learn about and promote digital accessibility at Carolina. We have representatives from all over campus and from all types of roles. Liaisons can be anyone who works at UNC including students, instructors, and staff.

2022-2023 Leaders

Maggie Miller

Training Generalist and Privacy Administrator,
University Development Office
Contact Maggie

Rhea Hebert

Communications Manager,
Center for Health Equity
Contact Rhea

Badge Training

The Digital Accessibility Office offers badge training for all current liaisons. We recommend this training to liaisons who want to take on more responsibility in their role. Liaisons who complete this training, its pre-requisites, and the final project receive a digital badge.

We have a growing number of badged liaisons who use their badge to promote their knowledge of accessibility.

To learn more about the badge training and register:

• Permanent employees should sign up through Carolina Talent
• Temporary workers, students, and other affiliates should sign up through LearningStream

Why you should join

By becoming a DAL, you become your department or unit’s local influencer for digital accessibility. You can help to scale up the DAO’s outreach efforts across campus. You can also grow your own knowledge and develop new professional skills.

[Being a liaison] has given me the accreditation I need to when attempting to educate co-workers and supervisors on why we can’t do certain things. They still create or post inaccessible things, but when I come back to say I have changed it to be accessible they understand the “why”.
-Haley Houser, Carolina Housing

How to join

We will share meeting information with members of the Microsoft Team each month. You can connect with fellow liaisons, share resources, and discuss topics of interest between meetings.