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A note from the CAL Accessibility Coordinator and Advocate
Dear College of Arts and Letters Community,
In this April 2026 edition of the CAL Accessibility and Inclusion newsletter, you will find important information and updates about accessibility standards, news related to access and inclusion efforts in the college, support and learning programming across the university, and highlights about available resources to help you expand your inclusive practices.
Thank you,
Caitlin Cornell
CAL Accessibility and Inclusion Team
Last month, we introduced CAL new Accessibility and Inclusion team member Imari Cheyne Tetu. This month: meet Dr. Sarah Wellman.
Sarah Wellman is a Learning Design Specialist in both the Eli Broad College of Business and the College of Arts & Letters, where she supports faculty in designing high-quality, accessible online and hybrid courses. Her work focuses on integrating accessibility, pedagogy, and course design to create learning environments that are both effective and inclusive for all students. She collaborates with faculty, staff, and academic units to improve course structure, enhance digital materials, and implement sustainable accessibility practices aligned with institutional and federal guidelines.
Sarah is a certified Quality Matters Master Reviewer and serves as a Quality Matters Coordinator, with extensive experience evaluating and improving online course design. She also contributes to accessibility initiatives across colleges, including coordinating course remediation efforts and supporting faculty through consultations, workshops, and resource development.
She recently completed her PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education. Her research examines how online course design quality is defined and enacted at Tribal Colleges and Universities, with a focus on culturally grounded, community-informed approaches to teaching and learning. Drawing on both her professional and research experience, Sarah is committed to advancing accessibility as a core component of equitable and meaningful education.
Sarah looks forward to collaborating with colleagues across CAL and beyond to support accessible, inclusive, and high-quality learning experiences.
Access Spotlight
We use this space to highlight innovative and conscientious access and inclusion work in the college. This month, we want to share work by Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown in the African and African American Studies department and Dr. Emery Petchauer, Teachers College Columbia University.
This 3/13 blog post exposits Drs. Brown and Petchauer's work addressing tensions and finding balance between community members' access needs and embodied listening in an interdisciplinary arts context. Our team was particularly impressed by the way this project's collaborators asked and answered tough questions about fundamental access versus (and alongside) embodied, inclusive participation.
Read more about Drs. Brown and Petchauer's work: Forms of Freedom participatory research project.
Support and Learning
Here are some highlights of upcoming support and learning opportunities like workshops, webinars, and drop-in sessions across CAL, MSU, and beyond. Browse more support engagements on the CAL Accessibility and Inclusion web page.
Overview of 2026 Digital Accessibility Compliance Deadlines
The CAL Accessibility and Inclusion team has assembled an overview document outlining the 2026 digital accessibility compliance deadlines and identifying steps personnel can take to improve accessibility. (The same information was provided in our February and March newsletters). This guide is especially helpful for faculty as they improve accessibility in their D2L courses.
Digital Accessibility for Educators D2L course
Instructors can self-enroll in this D2L course launched in 2025 by MSU IT Educational Technology. All six self-paced modules are available. The program is based on the Basic Accessibility Checklist. Each module covers accessibility best practices and next steps for applying the concepts to course materials. Participants can earn a badge for each module, and a certificate upon completing all six modules. This program is open to faculty, staff, and students through the Digital Accessibility for Educators self-enrollment page.
Digital Accessibility Training
Do you need help understanding digital accessibility requirements and making changes in your digital materials? MSU IT Web Access team has assembled a list of training opportunities.
Digital Accessibility Resource Hub
MSU IT's digital accessibility landing page outlines MSU IT's digital accessibility support options like tutorials, document templates, and website consultation.
Resource Highlight
This month, we want to highlight an email sent by MSU IT on 3/24 about MediaSpace captions:
MediaSpace Update: What you need to know
To further support student success and strengthen accessibility across campus, MediaSpace will now automatically add machine-generated captions at no cost to previously uploaded videos that do not already have captions. Due to the volume of videos in the system, machine-generated captions will roll out over time, but will ultimately include all videos.
This enhancement was shaped by feedback from academic partners and developed in collaboration with the Office for Civil Rights. By extending captioning to both new and existing content, this update helps make MediaSpace more accessible while reducing manual steps for content owners.
What do you need to do?
- No action is required from you at this time.
- If you upload, manually caption, or use Kaltura Capture, you will receive a caption email notification.
- Captions must still be manually enabled by clicking the “CC” button while watching a video.
- Machine generated captions are over 85% accurate, but we strongly recommend reviewing and editing captions to ensure accuracy, especially for instructional or public facing content.
Why is this happening?
- This effort both enacts our commitment to digital accessibility and efficient content management, and also supports our efforts to provide accessible media for all users as required by the ADA.
- This will help maintain a streamlined and inclusive video library.
Where can you learn more?
- More information can be found on the MediaSpace Help Page.
- To read more about the guidelines to digital accessibility and content management visit MSU IT's Guidelines and Policies page.
Questions or concerns?
MSU IT live support is available Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. (excluding university holidays). Contact the MSU IT Service Desk using one of the methods listed below.
· Call (517) 432-6200
· Walk-in
For the latest status of MSU IT services, please visit servicestatus.msu.edu.
More resources
Visit the resources section of the CAL Accessibility and Inclusion home page to discover additional resources.
Monthly Tip
Here’s your monthly accessibility tip from CAL Accessibility & Inclusion team member Sarah Wellman:
Have you ever seen a link like this in a document or email? https://www.example.com/article?id=12345
While that link works, it's not accessible or pretty—especially for screen reader users who hear the entire URL read out loud (every. single. symbol.).
Instead, use descriptive links that tell people what they’re clicking on. It’s a small change with a big impact.
✅ Instead of: Visit https://www.example.com/article?id=12345
✅ Try this: Read the article on accessible communication
And this goes for emails, too—especially those we send to students. Link text like “Read more,” “Submit your form,” or “Schedule a meeting” helps everyone navigate more clearly.
🚫 Avoid this:
❌ Click here
❌ More info
❌ Read more
💡 Tip: Make your links meaningful out of context. A screen reader user should know what a link leads to just from hearing the link text.
Quick rule: The link text should describe where it leads.
Contact us!
Have a question about accessibility and disability inclusion, a suggestion for accessibility support in the college, or a topic to highlight in a future newsletter?
Email our team at access@cal.msu.edu.