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District-level Coordination
Accessibility Working Group
The District Accessibility Working Group brings together representatives from the district and colleges to coordinate accessibility work across Foothill-De Anza.
The group's focus areas include:
- Aligning district and college accessibility efforts
- Identifying shared infrastructure, tools, and training needs
- Supporting compliance with ADA Title II and the WCAG 2.1 AA standard
- Tracking progress on remediation and proactive accessibility work
- Connecting accessibility work to the district's broader equity goals
Educational Technology Services
ETS leads the technical accessibility work for district-managed websites, templates, and shared digital infrastructure. Recent and ongoing work includes:
- WCAG 2.1 AA audit of high-traffic ETS pages, with documented findings and remediation plans
- Template-level fixes that improve every page on our sites at once — skip navigation, language attributes, focus indicators, accessible mobile menu behavior, and similar foundational improvements
- Review and remediation of legacy content, with consolidation and cleanup of outdated material
- Development of accessible-by-default components and patterns for editors to use
- Guidance and support for content editors across the district
The Accessibility Capability Maturity Model (ACMM)
Beyond fixing individual websites, the district is working toward a more durable approach to accessibility — one where accessible practices are built into how we plan, procure, communicate, and teach. The framework guiding that work, across the California community colleges system, is the Accessibility Capability Maturity Model, or ACMM.
What The ACMM Is
The ACMM is a framework developed by the CCC Accessibility Center. It takes the broad concept of "accessibility" and breaks it into seven goal areas with specific, achievable milestones, so colleges and districts can move forward at a sustainable pace rather than treating accessibility as a single overwhelming task.
Its core idea is to shift institutions from a reactive approach — addressing accessibility only when a problem is reported or a complaint is filed — to a proactive one, where accessibility is built into business processes from the start.
The CCC Chancellor's Office has formally recognized the ACMM as a key framework for compliance and risk mitigation under the revised ADA Title II rule, and the systemwide goal is full adoption across California community colleges by 2030.
How It Works
The ACMM uses a three-step annual cycle:
- Assess. A baseline assessment looks at current practices across the institution against the ACMM's goals and milestones. The assessment scores each milestone on a status level from 0 (no formal practice) through 4 (mature, sustained, continuously improving).
- Plan. Using the baseline and recommendations from the ACMM team, the institution creates an accessibility improvement plan for the coming year that is realistic given local resources.
- Implement. Over the year, the institution executes the plan, integrating accessibility into business processes — procurement, web publishing, course design, communications, hiring, and so on.
The cycle then repeats. Reassessing each year captures progress and surfaces what to focus on next.
Why The ACMM Aligns With Our Equity Work
The CCC Accessibility Center frames the ACMM around three equity outcomes:
- Equity in Success — proactive accessibility supports academic and career success for students with disabilities
- Equity in Access — removing obstacles for students, faculty, staff, and guests with disabilities, fostering belonging
- Equity in Support — ensuring full participation across every aspect of the college experience
This framing is consistent with the district's broader equity work and with the CCC Vision 2030 goals.
Where Foothill-De Anza Stands
The Foothill-De Anza Community College District is slated to be in participating in the next ACMM cohort starting early 2027. Our baseline assessment is scheduled for February 2027.
In the meantime, we are working on the foundational steps the CCC Accessibility Center recommends as preparation, including:
- Establishing a Work Group to begin accessibility planning efforts, discuss areas of greatest need, and strategize ACMM goals and milestones.
- Promoting Accessible Document Training by encouraging faculty and staff to register for WebAIM Accessible Document training.
- Creating a Web Inventory listing all of our websites and web applications.
- Collecting ACRs/VPATs for technology purchases.
You can read more about the framework directly from the CCC Accessibility Center: ACMM Overview.
At The Colleges
Each college also has its own accessibility-related programs and people. The lists below highlight ongoing work; this is not exhaustive.
De Anza College
- Disability Support Programs and Services (DSPS): Provides academic accommodations, alternate formats, assistive technology support, and access services for De Anza students. De Anza DSPS
- Online Education: Provides suport for Canvas including course accessibility reviews, training and one-on-one help from instructional designers.
Foothill College
- Disability Resource Center (DRC): Provides accommodations, alternate formats, assistive technology, and access services for Foothill students. Foothill DRC
- Online Learning: Provides suport for Canvas including course accessibility reviews, training and one-on-one help from instructional designers.
Connections To Systemwide Work
Foothill-De Anza's accessibility work doesn't happen in isolation. We participate in and benefit from systemwide California community college efforts, including:
- CCC Accessibility Center — technical expertise, tools, training, and the ACMM framework
- CCC Technology Center — systemwide technology coordination and accessibility events
- Partnership work between the California Community Colleges and the California State University system on shared accessibility tools and aligned practices, including AIMhub for shared accessible instructional materials
- WebAIM document training cohorts available at no cost to CCC employees
How To Get Involved
Accessibility is most effective when it's not just one team's responsibility. There are several ways for faculty and staff to contribute:
- Make your own content more accessible. The Quick tips page is the fastest place to start.
- Build your skills. Free, self-paced courses are listed on the Training page.
- Report barriers. If something isn't working — for you or for someone you know — tell us. See the accessibility statement for how.
- Volunteer for accessibility-related committee work. [If there is a participation pathway for the District Accessibility Working Group or college-level groups, describe it here. Otherwise, point to the contact below.]
- Champion accessibility in your area. Whether that means raising accessibility in procurement decisions, faculty meetings, course design, communications planning, or vendor demos, the institutional shift the ACMM describes happens through hundreds of small advocacy moments, not just through formal committees.