Digital accessibility should be an expectation, not an afterthought
The story at a glance
- Changed the mindset — ORS made digital accessibility a priority, rather than an afterthought.
- Built better habits — ORS made accessibility an intentional part of the process.
- Made progress quickly — The team has made the work more manageable and is already halfway through.
On the wall of Katie Grant’s office hangs a message that has forever shaped her perspective on digital accessibility. It’s an image of sign language handshapes forming the phrase, “We have become your afterthought.” These five words, first introduced to Grant years ago by a deaf presenter at a conference, have become her rallying cry.
“That message really stuck with me. It was back in 2019, but I can still remember the moment I heard that. I can still picture right where I was sitting in that room,” said Grant.
As the research communications director for the Office of Research & Scholarship (ORS), Grant has played an integral role in helping ORS tackle digital accessibility. Her focus is on instilling in her team the importance of forming good habits, building momentum and understanding the “why” behind digital accessibility.
“Users who need digital accessibility just want to see changes being made. They’re glad to see they’re being included. It makes them feel like you care about them,” Grant said.
For ORS, the biggest piece of the puzzle is creating accessible websites for individual research labs.
“When I came on board, we had about 35 custom-built WordPress websites, all with different functionality, all using different plug-ins, all with varying levels of accessibility,” said Grant.
Migrating these sites to WiscWeb 2.0 became the solution to that problem. The redesigned system launched in September 2025, with built-in security, maintenance and digital accessibility features.
“That was a core component of how we were able to build buy-in. It wasn’t just security, but it also freed us up from maintenance – and it achieved this digital accessibility piece in a way that was easy for people to understand and use,” Grant said.
Before the switch, ORS was spending 8-15 hours on accessibility checks for each website. Now, the process only takes about 45 minutes.
“It’s clear this overall process has improved a lot of things about these websites. They’re cleaner, faster, more streamlined and far more accessible. The number of benefits of doing this is huge, even though at first, it seemed like an impossible task,” Grant said.
She described digital accessibility as a “passion project” and “one of those things I have fought very hard for.” What began as a moment of inspiration from a presenter at a conference has grown into a deep-seated philosophy of integrity and inclusion. Grant emphasized digital accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought; it should be a priority.
“Digital accessibility needs to be an intentional part of the process. Just like adding a photo credit is part of the process, so is adding alt text. It’s not extra work; it’s just building habits,” said Grant. “Accessibility isn’t something you only think about at the end of a project. It has to be top of mind, start to finish.”
So far, ORS has completed a dozen website migrations. Three more are in progress, and work is scheduled on another nine. According to Grant, the progress her team has made is what she’s most proud of.
“This is a big mountain for us to climb,” Grant said. “When we first laid out the timeline, we thought it was going to take us 2-3 years to get through all the sites. The fact that we’re six months in and we’re already halfway through, and we’re on target to finish it by the end of the year, with a handful of exceptions – I think that is a really big deal.”
Digital accessibility was once overwhelming and time consuming for ORS. Now, it’s second nature – and every migrated website moves the team one step closer to making ORS’ content inclusive for all.