For several years, the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Stony Brook University has provided faculty with resources to enhance their teaching. CELT offers a range of programs, including workshops, seminars, and an annual symposium, aimed at helping instructors adopt new teaching methods.
This year, CELT is focusing on digital accessibility as universities nationwide face a deadline to ensure all digital materials are fully accessible by the end of April. Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Amy Cook said, “Digital accessibility ensures that all people, regardless of their ability or reliance on assistive devices, can have equal access to information. Stony Brook takes seriously its commitment to inclusion and to creating the best possible learning environment. The experts at the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching are leading our efforts to update teaching materials and support our faculty and instructors as they build accessibility into teaching and scholarship.”
Digital accessibility involves making documents and webpages usable by individuals who rely on assistive technology such as screen readers. It also benefits users who prefer features like closed captions or reader view modes.
Rose Tirotta-Esposito, assistant provost of educational transformation and director of CELT, said, “Working with our faculty during this transition has been truly rewarding. I’ve learned so much about the intricacies of digital accessibility, and have had a front row seat to further explore the amazing work our faculty are doing. They are dedicated to our students and truly care about teaching every learner.”
She added: “Since I arrived at SBU, CELT has been collaborating with the Student Accessibility Support Center (SASC) and the Office of Equity and Access (OEA) to bring digital accessibility and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to the forefront of our conversations with faculty. We now have that opportunity, and the team is working diligently to get up to speed and support faculty through this process.”
At the start of the fall semester, CELT introduced self-paced digital tutorials covering topics such as updating documents, PDFs, images, slide decks, videos, and other files for compliance with federal requirements.
In the first four months of the 2025-2026 academic year, CELT staff held over 40 workshops—averaging two or three per week—to demonstrate how to make files accessible. These sessions attracted approximately 800 participants. Additional workshops are planned for spring.
CELT also provided more than 30 consultation sessions where departments or individuals received guidance from accessibility experts regarding specific challenges related to meeting April’s deadline.
To address one major challenge—making PDFs accessible—CELT hired student workers trained in remediation processes. Since early 2025, instructors requested help updating more than 1,000 PDF files; most have already been completed while others require further work due to complex content such as scientific diagrams or mathematical equations. To facilitate these updates involving complex images or equations within STEM fields—which present particular difficulties—CELT is seeking external software solutions.
Lindsay Bryde, senior course content accessibility specialist at CELT said: “The student staff have been an asset to our team. Their contributions and keen eye for detail have ensured that each document is machine-readable for all users. They have shown a vested interest in the success of our project and dedication to creating accessible content. They are always looking for ways to refine our workflow and make meaningful contributions to our team. Many of them have an interest in fields that will require them to know how to create accessible content, and they are getting hands-on experience to take with them into their future.”
As demand increases ahead of April’s deadline—especially from STEM instructors whose materials include complex diagrams—CELT received a $10,000 grant from the State University of New York system in January. This funding will be used primarily for hiring graduate students or specialists with backgrounds in mathematics or science disciplines who can assist in making PDFs compliant with accessibility standards.
