Accessible According to Whom?

Central question: What gives us the authority to call a digital experience accessible?

The Problem

A client asks: "Is our digital experience accessible?" That question cannot be answered responsibly without understanding what accessible means and whose requirements or standards are being applied. Each team will investigate one source of authority and contribute one part of the class's eventual answer.

Experience Under Review

Design Futures 2026 Registration

Open the experience ->

Team Assignments

All three team assignments are visible below so you can see the full challenge structure.

Cyan Triangle

Investigate the legal framework for digital accessibility in U.S. higher education.

Which federal disability laws matter for digital accessibility at a public university?
How do Section 504 and ADA Title II differ in scope and purpose?
Where does WCAG enter the current legal framework?
What is Section 508, and does it apply to a public university in the same way?
What can these legal requirements allow you to conclude about Design Futures?
What can law alone not tell you about whether an experience is actually accessible?

Amber Circle

Investigate WCAG as a technical standard and how conformance works.

What is WCAG?
Who publishes and maintains it?
What are POUR, success criteria, and conformance levels?
What do Levels A, AA, and AAA mean?
What is the relationship between WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2?
How can WCAG be used to evaluate Design Futures?
What can WCAG conformance alone not tell us?

Violet Square

Investigate UConn policy requirements and institutional accountability.

What does UConn's Digital Accessibility Policy require?
How does UConn describe accessible digital experiences?
Who and what does the policy apply to?
How does UConn policy connect to federal law and WCAG?
What would UConn's requirements mean for Design Futures?
What can institutional policy alone not tell us?

Deliverable

Create one concise team brief as a PDF (approximately 1–2 pages) with working links to authoritative sources.

Do not submit a slide presentation. Submit your brief as a concise PDF (approximately 1–2 pages) through HuskyCT/Blackboard. The PDF should contain working links to authoritative sources.

Plain-English explanation

Explain your assigned lens for someone encountering it for the first time.

3–5 key findings

Identify the most important things the class should understand.

Authoritative sources

Link directly to the primary sources supporting important claims.

Apply It

Explain how your findings affect the evaluation of the Design Futures registration experience.

What We Still Don't Know

Identify something your lens cannot establish by itself.

AI Use Note

Identify any generative AI tools used and briefly explain how they contributed.

AI Use

AI output is not evidence.

AI may help your team get oriented, interpret difficult material, organize ideas, or test possible answers. Important claims must still be verified against authoritative sources or direct testing.

Evaluation

The challenge is worth 10 points.

Investigation - 3 points
Did the team identify and investigate the important dimensions of its assigned question?
Evidence - 3 points
Are important conclusions supported by appropriate authoritative sources, standards, observations, or testing?
Judgment - 2 points
Did the team distinguish what its evidence does and does not allow it to conclude?
Communication - 2 points
Is the resulting brief concise, understandable, and useful to the rest of the class?

Due

Due: EOD after Session 02

The official submission deadline and assignment submission are in HuskyCT/Blackboard.