Mission
The UCLA Web Accessibility Initiative’s (UWAI) mission is to elevate the accessibility of UCLA’s websites to W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), level AA and to promote accessible design practices.
Enroll Sites & Users into Siteimprove
Automated scanning can only observe about 30% of potential digital accessibility errors, but it's an excellent place to start your digital accessibility journey and a great way to keep an eye on your status. Check out our Siteimprove enrollment instructions page to enroll a site or user.
Weekly Public Training Webinars
Check out the DCP's weekly public training webinars on a variety of digital accessibility topics including: Digital Accessibility Basics, Testing Basics, Introduction to the Siteimprove Tool and PDF Remediation Basics. All of our trainings can be found on the DCP Events page and/or the OARC Events page. Keep an eye out for special events, too! We have Disability Culture and Allyship and Meet a Paralympian events going on for Disability Pride Week (October 14-17, 2025)!
Consultation Request
Have questions? Not sure where to start? Just want to chat with our team? Feel free to email the whole DCP team with the subject line "Consultation Request: _______________" to join our queue and get on our schedules!
Past UWAI Iterations
Check out all the great work UWAI has done since its inception!
- UWAIX (2024-2025)
The UCLA Web Accessibility Initiative Extension’s (UWAIX) is a year-long extension (2024-2025) of the UWAI mission values of digital accessibility and equity for all.
Resource Creation
DCP created new trainings to specialize in both Siteimprove support and PDF remediation consultation and were beta tested through the 2024-2025 academic year. Both trainings will run on a monthly (4-week) cycle starting in Fall 2025.
Voluntary Siteimprove Enrollment for all UCLA Websites
The DCP will continue to facilitate and administrate the voluntary enrollment of campus sites into the system-wide automated accessibility checker, Siteimprove. We will make ourselves available upon request to help departments interpret the results and develop remediation action plans. In 2025, our enrollment, through a UCOP initiative has increased from 300+ sites to 800+. Reach out to us to find out if your site was part of the UCOP enrollment initiative or add yours today!
BruinLearn Ally Tool Partnership
The BruinLearn Ally Tool has been absorbed by the UCLA Teaching & Learning Center (TLC). While we support their accessibility efforts, if you need consultation directly about course and academic accessibility please first meet with the TLC and/or the Center for Accessible Education (CAE).
- UWAIX (2023-2024)
The UCLA Web Accessibility Initiative Extension’s (UWAIX) is a year-long extension (2023-2024) of the UWAI mission values of digital accessibility and equity for all and includes new, well-informed and optimized objectives:
Professional Schools and College Division Websites
The UCLA Web Accessibility Initiative Steering Committee has chosen to pursue the HTML remediation of the websites for the UCLA professional schools and college divisions. They will be prioritized in order of need and resources.
UCLA Branded and Accessible Website Development Resources
The DCP is partnering with StratComm and ITS to create resources to enable campus entities to create on-brand and accessible UCLA-related websites. More information on this project coming soon!
Vetting Accessible Web Development Vendors with UCLA Purchasing
We will continue our fruitful partnership with UCLA Purchasing and Procurement in improving and maintaining our accessibility vetting process for web vendors and web development contracts on our campus to ensure web compliance inline with the University of California Terms and Conditions of Purchase, articles 6.D and 6.E.
Article 6 Subsection D: Accessibility Requirements
Supplier warrants that:
- It complies with California and federal disabilities laws and regulations; and
- The Goods and Services will conform to the accessibility requirements of WCAG 2.0 AA.
- Supplier agrees to promptly respond to and resolve any complaint regarding accessibility of its Goods and/or Services
Voluntary Siteimprove Enrollment for all UCLA Websites
The DCP will continue to facilitate and administrate the voluntary enrollment of campus sites into the system-wide automated accessibility checker, Siteimprove. We will make ourselves available upon request to help departments interpret the results and develop remediation action plans.
BruinLearn Ally Tool Project
The DCP is excited to expand our resources into supporting accessible developments and designs in the BruinLearn LMS space. The campus has recently implemented a tool called Ally to gather data around accessibility in the LMS. After the data gathering stage is complete, the DCP and other stakeholders will develop a project plan for how to improve this environment. Stay tuned!
- UWAI (2019-2022)
Three Tiers of Service
Tier 1
Tier 1 of UWAI Addresses the accessibility of 37 of UCLA’s high priority websites. This tier of service includes UWAI developer remediation consulting, high touch document remediation, and full accessibility boot camp.
The boot camp includes manual screen reader testing, mobile accessibility testing, a comprehensive accessibility report, accessibility training, design and developer consulting.
Tier 2
Tier 2 of UWAI aligns the campus to the accessible purchasing policy. All new and highly revised websites at UCLA will observe the WCAG AA level standard. All third party vendors should be aware of the University of California Terms and Conditions of Purchase, articles 6.D and 6.E.
Article 6 Subsection D
Accessibility Requirements. Supplier warrants that:
- It complies with California and federal disabilities laws and regulations; and
- The Goods and Services will conform to the accessibility requirements of WCAG 2.0 AA.
Supplier agrees to promptly respond to and resolve any complaint regarding accessibility of its Goods and/or Services
Tier 3
Tier 3 of UWAI includes all campus units that are not part of Tier 1. Tier 3 is any campus unit that has a website, a mobile app, online learning tool or technology that they want tested and remediated for accessibility. Tier 3 is an opt in tier and will include full access to automated testing and reporting tools for accessibility, a manual scan of the website or tool, accessibility training and limited access to UWAI developers for consultation.
The Original UCLA Web Accessibility Initiative (UWAI) Successes
From 2019 to 2022, the original UCLA Web Accessibility Initiative (UWAI) took place. The successes included:
- Remediating 37 high-profile UCLA websites to WCAG 2.0
- Incorporating accessibility criteria in the UCLA Purchasing and Procurement process through the SNOW Triage (with Security and Privacy)
- Remediating over 35,000 pages of UCLA documents
- Enrolling 300+ websites into Siteimprove (a digital accessibility crawler)
- Facilitating a continued training program on digital accessibility basics, digital accessibility testing, HTML accessibility, document remediation, education accessibility, universal design and pedagogy, and disability allyship and culture
UWAI Student Core
The DCP would like to thank our student core, many of whom stay for multiple years until graduation. The student core has always been the heart and soul of this initiative and has proven to be efficient, effective, and passionate. Their contributions to our department and community are invaluable (alphabetical by last name within groups).
- UWAIX 2024-Current
Mark Agban - PDF Remediation Lead (since 2023)
Melissa Chang - Products Accessibility Tester & Website Student Lead (since 2023)
Nicholas Shinghal - Front-End Web Accessibility Engineer (since 2023)
Amanda Paulak - Social Media and Outreach Coordinator (2024-2025)
- UWAIX 2023-2024
Peter Agban - Lead Accessibility Engineer & PDF Remediation Lead (2021-2024)
Arezo Ahmadi - Social Media and Outreach Coordinator (2022-2024)
Kate Burcham - VR/AR Lab Accessibility Engineer (2023-2024)
Saige Carter - Products Accessibility Engineer (2023-2024)
Catarina Gerges - Video Creation & Outreach Intern (Fall 2023 & Winter 2024)
Alyssa Lung - Ally Data Lead (2021-2024)
Helio Luti - Instructional material Support Intern (Summer 2023)
Alex Velikanov - Back-End Web Accessibility Engineer (2019-2024, from original team)
- Accessibility Engineer Training Program (AETP) & Complex STEM Accessibility Team 2021-2025
We are so thankful for this partnership funded by the Computational Medicine Department. This project concluded in September 2025 due to budget cuts.
Ryan Alomair - AETP Intern (Summer & Fall 2022)
JC Calso - Complex STEM Accessibility Development Lead (2023-2025)
Elizabeth Gallmeister - AETP Faculty Resources Co-Lead (2021-2022)
Annika Gillam - AETP Faculty Resources Co-Lead (2021)
Katie Osborn - Accessibility Engineer Training Program (AETP) Lead (2021-2024)
Praveena Ratnavel - Complex STEM Accessibility Engineer & Testing (2024-2025)
- UWAI 2020-2023
Peter Agban - Lead Accessibility Engineer & PDF Remediation Lead (2021-2024)
Arezo Ahmadi - Social Media and Outreach Coordinator (2022-2024)
Heather Chou - GIS Accessibility Engineer Lead (2021-2023)
Maya Khoury - Outreach and Social Media Coordinator (2020-2021)
Menachem Kornreich - Accessibility Engineer PDF Intern (Summer 2021)
Jacob Linder - Back-End Web Accessibility Engineer (2021-2023)
Alyssa Lung - Ally Data Lead (2021-2024)
Jane Ni - Accessibility Engineer (2021-2022)
Keona Mae Pablo - Accessibility Engineer (2021-2022)
Sakeena Siddiq - Accessibility Engineer (2021-2023)
Robert Smith - Accessibility Testing & QA Student Lead (2020-2023)
- 2021 MetaMap Entrances GIS Project
Thank you to the UCLA EDI Office, through UCOD, for funding this project.
Ada Chung - GIS Data Collection Intern
Mollie McGrann - GIS Data Collection Intern
Jared Tadayon - Back-End GIS Accessibility Engineering Lead
Sean Woodward - Project & Volunteering Lead
- Summer 2020 Interns
Jovany Barba - Accessibility Testing & QA Student Lead
Austin Clack - Accessibility Engineer (GIS Specialization)
Joseph D'Eredita - Accessibility Engineer
Ryan MacDougall - Accessibility Engineer
- Original Team (Started 2019)
Megan Borella - Accessibility Testing & QA Student Lead (2019-2020)
Ben Hara - PDF Accessibility Engineer (2019-2021)
Diana Nguyen - Outreach and Social Media Coordinator (2019-2020)
George Shenusay - PDF Accessibility Engineer & Video + GIS Specialist (2019)
Michael Ting - PDF Accessibility Engineer Lead (2019-2022)
Alec Velikanov - Back-End Web Accessibility Engineer (2019-2024)
Fady Wassef - PDF Accessibility Engineer & Captions Lead (2019-2021)