Summer of Access Webinar Series 2026

Summer of Access Webinar Series: Building Accessibility That Works

This summer, the Accessibility L&D Community is back with another round of free, digital accessibility webinars designed to help educators, instructional designers, and Learning and Development professionals build accessible digital experiences. Sessions run July through August 2026.

July Sessions

The Accessibility Army of One: 3 Permission-Free Workflows for Inclusive Design

Presenter: Jacob Wood, Founder & Accessibility Leadership Evangelist, Growth for ALL | NVDA Certified Expert

Many organizations treat accessibility as something to check at the end of a project, long after barriers have already been created. But even if your team places accessibility last, you don't have to. This session teaches three habits you can use today: a pre-build accessibility lens that helps you spot barriers before you create them, a quick keyboard-only workflow check, and a professional way to communicate accessibility decisions as intentional design choices. You'll gain repeatable actions that fit into your workflow.

July 14 | 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Register for Accessibility Army of One

Building Free WCAG Tools for Under-Resourced Institutions: Lessons from A11yGuidance

Presenter: Dil Rawat, Graduate Researcher, Youngstown State University

Most schools, small colleges, and small public institutions face DOJ Title II compliance deadlines without the budget for commercial accessibility platforms. In this session, Dil walks through the real-world deployment of A11yGuidance, a free WCAG scanner with plain-language remediation guidance built specifically to bridge that gap. You'll learn what automated scanning genuinely catches (and where human WCAG knowledge still has to take over), why plain-language guidance for non-technical content editors matters as much as detection, and common WCAG failure patterns across institutions. Geared toward instructional designers, accessibility specialists, and education professionals working with limited budgets and small—or solo—accessibility teams.

July 16 | 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Register for Building Free WCAG Tools

A Busy Person's Guide to Accessibility Testing

Presenter: Lyssa Prince, Digital Accessibility Specialist at WebAIM

Testing digital materials for accessibility can be complex and time-consuming. It's difficult to know where to start and how to test more complex things, especially if you don’t consider yourself a technical person. It’s also difficult to fit a comprehensive audit into a busy schedule, even if you’re already a strong accessibility tester. This session will benefit you if you have a solid grasp of accessibility principles but want to go beyond counting the number of errors and alerts in an automated tool. This session will also greatly benefit participants who are comparing software to buy or use, as the checks performed make up a great set of high-impact checkpoints that can help you rule products in or out. This session will break these tests down into manageable chunks and give you hands-on experience with identifying failures. You’ll also learn about a series of no-cost learning modules and resources that will help you continue to develop your testing skills. We’ll primarily focus on testing websites and web applications rather than documents, but some document testing practices may be shown where relevant. For each of the testing practices, we’ll test a real webpage. Bring your laptop to follow along! Important note: While the tests performed in this session will provide an excellent big picture of how accessible your digital materials are, these tests do not replace a comprehensive audit.

July 21 | 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Register for A Busy Person's Guide to Accessibility Testing

August Sessions

We Built It Right, So Why Can't Anyone Use It?

Presenter: Angela Fowler, Founder & CEO, Real Life Access | Accessibility Strategist

Teams follow best practices, use modern tools, and even run automated accessibility checks—yet users still struggle. This session breaks down why that happens. Accessibility failures are rarely caused by a lack of effort. More often, they come from systems that were never designed to support real human use in the first place. Automated checkers only catch a fraction of real issues—they don't identify broken workflows, confusing navigation, or experiences that technically pass but fail in practice. Through real examples and live demonstrations, you'll learn how accessibility issues emerge from tools, training, and process gaps, and how to start recognizing these failures before your users do.

August 4 | 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Register for We Built It Right

This PDF Looked Easy… Until I Opened the Tag Tree

Presenter: Angelina Smith, CPACC, ADS, Trusted Tester | Digital Accessibility Specialist, Bridgeway Access

Accurately estimating document accessibility effort is a critical—and often overlooked—skill. This session focuses on the early assessment process: identifying PDF red flags, understanding how source files impact the level of effort, and recognizing when a document may require significantly more work than its appearance suggests. You'll learn how to determine level of effort and weigh decisions before sinking time into the tag tree. Ideal for anyone who works with document accessibility, whether you're new to remediation or looking to sharpen your scoping skills.

August 13 | 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Register for This PDF Looked Easy

Beyond Alt Text: Making Complex STEM Visualizations Accessible at Scale

Presenter: Christin Monroe, Educational Research Associate at the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

What does it actually take to make highly visual STEM content accessible? In this session, Christin will share lessons learned from writing alt text and accessibility notes for over 200 figures in a biomolecular visualization textbook. This work surfaced a critical insight: accessibility is not just about adding alt text—it’s about rethinking how complex visuals (e.g., molecular models, Venn diagrams, screenshots, and tables) are communicated across multiple modalities. Participants will explore common challenges in making dense, technical visuals accessible, including: When alt text is not enough (e.g., complex diagrams and 3D representations)How to handle screenshots, tables, and interactive toolsDesigning with color, structure, and cognitive load in mind. Deciding when to describe, simplify, or mark visuals as decorative. Grounded in real examples and before/after revisions, this session offers practical strategies for faculty, instructional designers, and content creators working with complex visual materials.Participants will leave with a set of transferable strategies and decision-making frameworks to improve accessibility in their own courses, documents, and learning materials.

August 18 | 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

Register for Beyond Alt Text

Join the Conversation 💬

Want reminders, replays, and ongoing discussions? Join the Accessibility L&D Slack Community to stay connected, share takeaways, and collaborate with like-minded professionals.

Let's make this the summer we stop retrofitting, and start designing for everyone, from the start.