Pellissippi State Community College increases course accessibility through Access by Design initiative

Pellissippi State Community College is working toward improved accessibility through the Access by Design initiative. The grant-funded initiative will help instructors make their course materials more easily usable by more students and will help the college work toward the goal of becoming fully compliant with updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act by 2026.

According to an article on Pellissippi State Community College’s website, Kate O'Meara, who serves as the ESL program coordinator and an associate professor of English, was a mentor in the first cohort of Access by Design. She noted that enhanced accessibility will benefit everyone, not only individuals in need of accommodations. She is quoted as saying, “Something that is designed to positively impact a small percentage of the population is likely to have a greater impact on almost everyone in that environment. And that is the goal … it's not to benefit one individual in one specific instance. It's to benefit all individuals in all instances. And that's pretty exciting — that we can make the world an easier place to navigate for everyone.”

Ten faculty members participated in the first cohort of the initiative during the Spring 2025 semester. The cohort included five members who were experts in accessibility and five who were new to the concepts. Throughout the semester, the group met to teach and to learn how they could improve accessibility in their course materials. The group was given tangible evidence that their accessibility scores were improving, with one participant, Jerry Burns, a General Chemistry instructor, improving his score from 30% to 74%.

Charity Davenport, who is an instructional technology specialist in the Pellissippi Academic Center for Excellence, led the Access by Design initiative. She noted that it's a common misconception among educators that they don’t need to worry about making their course materials accessible until they have a student who needs accommodations. There are students who are unable to receive a formal diagnosis, perhaps due to lack of money, to signify the necessity of accommodations, and there are accessibility accommodations that can be made that will help anyone succeed, not just those with disabilities. One example of this is by providing captioned video content that can be watched on mute by students who are parents and don’t want to wake their children with volume.

O’Meara believes the learning done through Access by Design will have long-term benefits across campus.

She said, “When our students can use our material in the easiest way for them, it makes the classes better for them. It makes education better for them, and it also makes our lives easier.”

For more information about Pellissippi State Community College, visit the school’s website.