Winona State University is committed to ensuring our community has access to all digital content. Toward this goal, and to maintain compliance with the ADA Title II requirements, Winona State has formed a Title II team made up of representatives from Marketing & Communications, Information Technologies, Teaching, Learning, & Technology Services, Legal Affairs, and Access Services. This cross-departmental team developed a comprehensive strategic plan to guide the campus-wide education and training efforts across campus on digital accessibility. The University President, Dr. Kenneth Janz, identified CIO Robin Honken, as the cabinet-level advocate for this work.
Throughout 2025, Winona State offered a series of digital accessibility workshops. Workshops covered key topics such as an introduction to WCAG 2.1, an introduction to accommodations for students, ensuring accessibility with the major Office 365 tools (Word, PPT, and Outlook), accessibility in D2L Brightspace (the LMS), captioning in MediaSpace, an introduction to alternative text, and an introduction to accessibility in PDFs. A foundations course on disability and accessibility is currently being developed for students.
The MinnState System Office provides all employees access to the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). With this access, members of the Title II team completed coursework toward the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies status; with one member achieving this certification.
The Disability and Accessibility All-University Committee revised its charter to formally include digital accessibility within its scope. This group is currently drafting a comprehensive university accessibility policy.
To support accessibility within the learning management system (D2L Brightspace), Winona State adopted YuJa Panorama, a tool that reviews and assists with content remediation. The platform helps faculty resolve accessibility issues and offers students alternative formats for most materials. Winona State also uses SiteImprove to assess and enhance the accessibility of its public websites.
A dedicated email address was created for digital accessibility communications. This inbox is monitored by several members of the Title II team. Bi-weekly emails are sent to all employees that include practical digital accessibility tips. These tips are archived for reference.
A series of digital accessibility Knowledge Base articles have been created. Articles include information on Title II requirements, instructions for editing video and audio captions, and resources for ensuring accessibility of documents and other content.
To education and encourage participation, Winona State launched the Digital Accessibility Warriors challenge. A game board was distributed to all employees and participants can earn stickers by complete accessibility tasks (such as attending a workshop or having a 1:1 consultation).
Winona State has initiated a comprehensive tool compliance review to evaluate all third-party tools used across the institution. This review includes library databases, academic technologies, software applications, and social media platforms, ensuring they meet accessibility standards.