Owls are Invited to a New STEM Community of Practice
KENNESAW, Ga. | May 29, 2026
A new Complex STEM Accessibility Community of Practice is emerging for anyone interested in making STEM more accessible.
Updated: June 8, 2026
The extension to DOJ’s WCAG deadline may have taken some pressure off from a compliance standpoint, but there is still plenty of accessibility work to do this year to make KSU’s academic and non-academic content and communications accessible to all our students and stakeholders. That is felt nowhere more keenly than the STEM fields, which present many challenges for digital accessibility.
That said, over the past year, we’ve seen faculty and staff in math, chemistry, physics, engineering, and many more subjects make great strides in understanding how to make equations, molecular diagrams, graphs and more readable by assistive technology. Work groups have popped up all over campus to develop efficient workflows and practices, and our sub-unit in DLI has been honored to assist and advise so many hard-working, conscientious Owls!
That’s why we’re excited to share a new Complex STEM Accessibility Community of Practice (CoP) co-founded by Sara Shunkwiler, an expert in STEM accessibility at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. This CoP is open to anyone wanting to learn more about the STEM fields and accessibility. We’ve already reached out to Sara to inquire about availability, and she has extended a gracious invitation to anyone from KSU who would like to join!
To learn more, you can visit her post on LinkedIn. You can also sign up to be a part of the CoP using her interest form. A helpful seminar on Math Accessibility Updates in Microsoft 365 is available, and she has shared resources from a workshop she co-delivered at the Microsoft Ability Summit: Accessible Math Unlocks STEM Education and Careers, the recording of that workshop is also available on YouTube.
This collaborative community of practice looks to be very informative for STEM faculty, staff support, and instructional designers. We encourage anyone working on STEM accessibility to check it out!
UPDATE: The first issue was sent out on June 1, 2026. Download a PDF version of the STEM Access CoP email message.
