By April 24, 2026 all educators at CUNY are expected to comply with “New Rules on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments” set forth by the US Department of Justice. The TLC is hosting two events in April to put these new rules in context, and to support Graduate Center student instructors as the date of expected compliance approaches.
Panel: Just Accessible Futures
April 15, 2026 | 4–5:30 pm | Zoom | Register
Where are accessibility and disability in our ideas and plans for the future? How is accessibility being addressed in Higher Ed? What are the pedagogies and practices required to create just, accessible futures for our students and communities? Join the TLC for a virtual panel discussion centering accessibility and disability in the classroom and beyond, featuring scholars S.E. Hamlet (CUNY GC), Philip C. Bonanno (Penn State), and Sarah Silverman (Ind. Scholar). Please bring questions, dreams and resources to share about accessibility, disability, and just futures.
Panelist Bios:
S.E. Hamlet | PhD Student & Educator | CUNY Graduate Center
S.E. Hamlet is an Afro-Caribbean poet, writer, educator and literary scholar whose work explores the intersections of disability, affect, identity, and the lived experiences of people with albinism. Her work engages poetic inquiry, the crip gothic, monstrosity, longing, belonging and embodied storytelling. It blends scholarship and creative practice to illuminate marginalized narratives.
Her work is committed to expanding how we understand (in)visibility, belonging, and embodiment.
Philip Bonanno | University Graduate Fellow | Penn State
Philip Bonanno is a dual-title PhD graduate student in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University. There, he studies disability in relationship to technological capitalism, within the realms of cultural studies, feminist philosophy, and speculative fiction. Philip is passionate about anti-ableist pedagogy and has presented at multiple workshops. His first article, concerning accommodations, universal design, and the university, will appear in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies next year.
Sarah E. Silverman | Independent Scholar | sarahemilysilverman.com
Sarah Silverman, PhD is an independent faculty developer and instructor of Disability Studies. As an autistic educator, she has a personal stake in Neurodiversity as well as extensive college teaching and faculty development experience. Her writings appear in To Improve the Academy, the blog Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, and on her newsletter Beyond the Scope. Her book Classroom Mindscapes: An Introduction to Neurodiversity for Educators is forthcoming from the University of Oklahoma Press.
Janelle Poe | Moderator & TLC Fellow | CUNY Graduate Center
A PhD candidate in English, Janelle Poe’s research focuses on representations of blackness in literature, film and media. A Graduate Center and City College TLC Fellow with teaching experience in English and Black Studies, she works towards global rights for free, accessible, high-quality education; learning and living communities where equity, diversity, freedom, and love are universal. A multidisciplinary artist, recent publications include “Don’t Front, The 90’s Got You Open: AKA Hip Hop Will Always Be That And Then Some” in Happy Nostalgia: Making Connections With Music of the 90’s.
Make Your Teaching and Learning Materials (More) Accessible: Collaborative Working Session
April 16, 2026 | 2–4:00 pm | Room 3317 | Register
Are your course materials accessible? This includes PDFs, slidedecks, audio and video files, documents, spreadsheets and images — any content students will engage with in your class. Making sure our materials are accessible creates an environment where all students can fully engage in learning and thrive.
As of April 24, 2026, CUNY instructors must ensure that all of their teaching materials including readings, syllabi, multimedia content, adhere to W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in accordance with new rules from the ADA.
If you need help applying OCR in a PDF, developing captions for a video, or writing effective alt text descriptions for images, or would like to discuss other ways to make your course more accessible, attend our collaborative working session to engage in this work with TLC fellows and peers. Bring a laptop and materials or questions that you would like to share with the group. Lunch and snacks will be provided.
Archived Workshops from CUNY Computing and Information Services
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Making PDFs Accessible with Adobe Acrobat
Friday, March 13, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: Accessibility Basics: Why You Should Care
Monday, March 16, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Creating Accessible Word Documents
Wednesday, March 18, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: Designing Accessible PowerPoint Presentations
Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Building Accessible Excel Spreadsheets
(h/t to Student Disability Services at the Graduate Center for compiling these links).
