Accessibility Champions

Creating excellent learning experiences for each student

We believe that the joy of learning, the freedom to grow, and the benefits of education are fundamental human rights at a university. Accessibility of course materials and Universal Design for Learning is essential for providing an equitable and inclusive learning environment for all Cal Poly Pomona students.

For that reason, in 2019, the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE) began a new initiative called eLearning Accessibility Champions (EACH), an initiative that would promote the intrinsic values that Cal Poly Pomona embraces.

In 2020, we re-introduced it to the campus as Champions for Accessibility and Inclusivity (CHAI). This name change reflects the ideals of Cal Poly Pomona more fully, not only addressing the different types of accessibility issues, but other barriers to education as well.

Faculty who are willing to put in the very personal work to use universal design principles and make their course materials accessible because they believe that all students deserve a fair shot, they are our heroes.

The Champions for Accessibility and Inclusivity project allows us to recognize heroes and help other faculty become heroes. We want to create a network of empathy towards students who benefit from universal design and accessible course materials and towards faculty who provide those materials.

Champions for Accessibility and Inclusivity will:

Complete CAFE’s asynchronous Fundamentals of Accessibility eCertificate course in Canvas, instituting a baseline awareness of best practices for accessibility and inclusivity. A digital certificate is awarded upon completion.
Attend a beginning-of-semester “kick off” and follow-up monthly meetings (< 1 hour each) with CAFE to plan and review program details and strategies.
Offer workshops/programs for either semester during their tenure as Champions:
- Offer at least one college-based accessibility workshop and one college-based quality assurance workshop that address the college’s specific concerns.
- Facilitate a guided version (2-3 weeks) of CAFE’s Fundamentals of Accessibility eCertificate course in Canvas for their college.
Send regular outreach (3-4 times per semester) messages to your college about accessibility, Quality Assurance, and CAFE resources. CAFE will provide template messages for you to customize.
Achieve an overall Ally score of 90% or greater for at least one of your courses that is web-enhanced, hybrid, or online. CAFE will help you track this.
Nominate future Champions for Accessibility and Inclusivity!

We anticipate that being a Champion for Accessibility and Inclusivity will require at least 30 hours over the academic year and may be more if your course materials need a lot of work to reach the 90% Ally score. That sounds like a lot of time but it’s only about three hours per month and you will get a ton of support. Keep reading…

This program is incredibly important to us. We believe that all students deserve an equal shot at success no matter what. To this end, CAFE will support you in many ways:

As a 2022/23 Champion, you will get up to $1500 in professional development funds
- $500 - Any time during the academic year upon achieving an overall Ally score of 90% or greater for a single course
- $1,000 - Achievable at the end of Spring 2023 upon completion of other activities (must be completed in time for fiscal year deadline: April, 2023)
  - Attend monthly meetings
  - Facilitate one accessibility and one quality assurance workshop, as well as a section of our Fundamentals of Accessibility eCertificate
  - Send college outreach messages (to be provided by CAFE)
  - Nominate future Accessibility Champions for your college
Receive enhanced student assistance (Studio 6) and instructional design support for your classes.
Campus recognition via outlets such as PolyCentric articles, the CAFE newsletter, and the CAFE Summer Institute. Plus, this is a university level service opportunity.

We’re looking for both full-time faculty or part-time faculty with a one-year contract who can commit to the program for the academic year. Champions need to teach at least one course in the academic year as online, hybrid, or web-assisted. Champions need to be enthusiastic LMS users!

We are now accepting submissions for our 2022/23 cohort. Please fill out the CHAI Application Form to apply.

Zahra Sotoudeh, Assoc Prof, Aerospace Engineering, & Campus Online Course Services (OCS) Lead for 2022-23: zsotoudeh@cpp.edu
April Dawn, Lead, Senior Instructional Designer: aprildawn@cpp.edu
Eric Davis, Instructional Designer: eadavis@cpp.edu
Richard Feldman, Multimedia Developer: rafeldman@cpp.edu