Stanford Online Accessibility Program Joins UIT

UIT is excited to announce that the Stanford Online Accessibility Program (SOAP) recently moved from University Communications to UIT.

“For years, SOAP has provided resources to help ensure digital materials are accessible to the broadest audience possible. UIT already provides much of the technology that empowers our Stanford community to publish, post, share, and collaborate in various manners online. It’s a natural next step to turn our partnership into an official organizational change by bringing SOAP into our organization,” said Steve Gallagher, Stanford CIO. “I’m extremely excited about this transition and the opportunities it presents to advance this already great program.”

What’s ahead

The current set of services — website accessibility reviews, development consulting services, automated testing — will continue to be available through SOAP in the same manner you get those services today. In the year ahead, UIT will expand that support and associated staff resources as we accelerate our collective effort to raise awareness and expand digital accessibility support services across Stanford.

Jiatyan Chen, SOAP’s program manager, has also joined the UIT team. Chen has led the program since 2015 and will continue to play a key role in its advancement.

How and why we got here

Stanford is deeply committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive community both on campus and online. Given this priority, Farnaz Kahdem, vice president for university communications, and Gallagher commissioned a university digital accessibility task group to recommend SOAP’s path forward. They accepted that team’s recommendation to move SOAP to UIT where it will benefit from joining a broader community of digital practices that includes UIT Consulting Services, Stanford Web Services, and End User Experience.

How to learn more

You can get information about SOAP and its services at soap.stanford.edu. And check out the recent UIT blog post on Why Web Accessibility Matters.

“We all owe University Communications our gratitude for its role in founding and leading this successful program for more than a decade. I look forward to deepening our partnership with UComm as we welcome Jiatyan and SOAP into UIT,” said Gallagher.