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Congratulations to the newest UCOP Accessibility Champion Award recipients

The UCOP IT Accessibility Work Group is charged with advocating for accessibility, implementing web accessibility standards and providing accessibility education and training to UCOP staff. Accessibility Champions are UCOP employees nominated by the work group for their demonstrated commitment to ensuring that UCOP websites and digital content are accessible to people with disabilities.

UCOP Accessibility Champions

Congratulations to the following employees:

Joel Hagedorn: Joel is a member of the Web Production team at the California Digital Library (CDL) and has been a leader in web accessibility for several years. He is often called upon to review and improve upon accessibility on CDL projects. He proactively develops and tests for web accessibility on several CDL websites and has even developed a process for automated accessibility testing during web development. Joel also frequently shares his expertise with other staff members within the CDL organization.

Lizette Lim: As a Cascade editor for the UC-HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Initiative website, Lizette has been proactively checking PDF files and assets for accessibility before submitting them to the workflow. She has coordinated with the web team to send documents in batches.

John Kratz: John Kratz is a user experience (UX) designer with the CDL and has been a strong advocate for accessibility since he joined the CDL UX team in 2017. He has integrated accessibility guidelines and best practices into all of the design and evaluation work that he has conducted for CDL websites and the online services that CDL provides to all 10 UC campuses. He considers accessible color contrast, user interactions and structured content in all of his design practices so that accessibility is considered from the very beginning of the development process. His expertise is a valued part of all of the development teams he’s worked with across CDL program areas.

Jane Lee: Jane Lee is also a UX designer with the CDL. Over the past several years, Jane, who specializes in user testing, has expanded her skillset to include accessibility testing and evaluation work. She has conducted quick accessibility spot-checks as well as extensive accessibility testing. This has culminated in the creation of Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPAT) for some CDL online products and services that serve academic and higher-education colleagues within the UC system and beyond. Jane’s expertise is a valued part of how CDL programs and teams ensure that online services and websites answer to an inclusive and diverse audience of users with different usability needs.

Thomas Trappler: Thomas Trappler is associate director of IT Strategic Sourcing. He has been instrumental in developing a process to address accessibility in systemwide RFPs, and has partnered closely with systemwide and UCOP accessibility groups to continually improve processes. He holds his team accountable for following accessibility-related processes and is a true champion of accessibility.

UCOP Accessibility Champions email signature

UCOP Accessibility Champions can be identified by the following email signature badge:Accessibility Champion

Accessibility Training Champions

Thank you to Aafia Ali Khan, Anthony Cimo, Darin Jensen, Karen Orlando, Leila Sievanen, Michael Aires, Nicole Carlotto, Nikki Dalupang, Sophia Smith and Vincent Cook for taking three or more accessibility training classes. We would like to thank you as accessibility champions as well!

To nominate a colleague who promotes web accessibility, email Yvonne Tevis with their name and a brief explanation of why they are an Accessibility Champion.

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  1. Lena Zentall April 12, 2022 Reply

    Congratulations, Joel, Lizette, John, Jane and Tom!