Campus Technology Services

For the past decade, SUNY Oswego has worked to build a digitally accessible culture where all members of the community can engage with online information and resources. Oswego's Digital Accessibility Workgroup, Steering Committee and campus accessibility fellows have advanced this effort, earning recognition from SUNY for leadership in accessibility practices.

As federal Title II regulations take effect in April 2026, the next phase of this work begins. Title II requires that online programs, services, and materials — including content delivered through a browser or mobile app — meet accessibility standards moving forward. This applies to new or actively shared digital content, whether publicly available or behind a login.

Examples include:

• Websites and web-based applications
• LMS course content
• Documents (PDFs, Google Docs, PowerPoints, etc.)
• Audio/video content (captions/transcripts)
• Supported mobile apps
• Third-party tools integrated with university platforms

Campus Technology Services (CTS) will continue to review institutionally supported systems and enterprise applications for accessibility compliance. Faculty and staff are encouraged to reach out to CTS before adopting new tools.

What you can do now

To support compliance by April 24, 2026, the university asks faculty, staff, and students to begin with the following:

• Ensure that newly created or newly shared digital content meets accessibility guidelines.
• Use accessible templates, formats, and tools where available.
• Consult CTS when selecting or updating web-based or mobile applications used for coursework or university operations.

Professional development and support

To assist the campus community:

• A Digital Accessibility Summit for faculty will be held on Jan. 21, with open office hours on Jan. 22. (Registration information has already been shared.)
• Staff-focused opportunities will be announced in Oswego Today.
• Weekly Oswego Today articles during the spring semester will introduce accessibility practices for content types such as emails, web pages, Google Docs, Word documents, and PDFs.
• The Digital Accessibility team is available to visit departments, offices or student groups for training or discussion.

Additional learning opportunities include:

• Accessibility tutorials on creating and checking accessible documents
• The asynchronous “Access: A Quest Toward Inclusion” course
• Winter breakout workshops through the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
• Digital Accessibility website resources

Staying informed

Additional updates on campus accessibility efforts and Title II implementation will continue to be shared through Oswego Today and occasional campus emails.

Creating an inclusive digital environment is a shared responsibility. Thank you for your attention to this important initiative and for helping ensure that SUNY Oswego remains a welcoming, accessible community for all.

On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, the Course Accessibility Checker widget was added to the Course Homepage in Brightspace. The widget uses the current Brightspace accessibility tool, Anthology Ally, to provide instructors with feedback to improve course content accessibility. This tool is only visible to course instructors.

The primary goal of improving course accessibility is to ensure SUNY Oswego is in compliance with the new enforcement of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which has an April 24, 2026 deadline. However, proactively removing barriers for students with disabilities also makes content more usable for all learners.

Key features for faculty

The widget serves two main functions for faculty:

• Displays the course’s overall Ally score.
• Provides a direct link to the Full Accessibility Report.

The Full Accessibility Report offers a comprehensive dashboard that is designed to help faculty prioritize remediation efforts. This report includes:

• A breakdown of content by type (e.g., PDFs, Word documents, or images)
• Identification of content with the most severe issues
• Highlighting items that are easiest to fix

Guided remediation

The report's true power lies in its ability to offer guided, step-by-step instructions for fixing accessibility problems. For instance, the report can:

• Direct an instructor to a low-scoring PDF and provide steps to ensure it has proper structure and is machine-readable.
• Point out images missing alternative text.
• Identify videos without captions.

Campus Technology Services (CTS) continues to work on a campus-wide transition to Windows 11. This transition is necessary as part of an ongoing commitment to provide a secure and efficient technology environment. 

Microsoft's support for Windows 10 concluded last week on Oct. 14. Microsoft will no longer supply security updates for that operating system. Upgrading to Windows 11 is therefore essential to mitigate increasing security risk, CTS said. Please review the following information and/or contact CTS to arrange your upgrade.

For employee computers

One of the first steps involved in upgrading to Windows 11 is determining hardware compatibility, as only certain models are compatible. If you need assistance in determining if your computer can be upgraded, please contact CTS or refer to the “Determining Hardware Compatibility” section of the Windows 11 migration information.

If your computer is not compatible with Windows 11, it will need to be replaced. You can use the campus standard hardware quotes for budgeting and requisition purposes. You can also check to see if CTS has any used inventory that could be used for replacements. 

If your computer is compatible with Windows 11, please ensure any specialized software and peripherals you use are also compatible, then proceed with submitting a “Windows 11 Upgrade” ticket.

More information

CTS has a comprehensive Windows 11 Migration Information document that should help answer many questions. Windows 11 features, training information, and frequently asked questions are also included.  

Feel free to contact the CTS Help Desk for questions.

Earlier this summer, Oswego Today featured an article from SUNY Oswego leadership titled "What it means for SUNY Oswego to become an AI campus.” The article discusses the campus' adaptation to AI technology, the opportunities and challenges it presents, and its promotion of a culture of experimentation.

To help foster this growth of an AI campus, three new tools will become available by the start of the fall semester that can help enhance teaching, learning, and productivity at SUNY Oswego. Campus Technology Services (CTS), the Division of Extended Learning and the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) have been working to bring these resources to you, and believe they will be valuable assets for all faculty, staff and students.

As these tools are rolled out, it is highly encouraged to review best practices when using AI, which includes considerations of ethics, data accuracy, security and more to ensure successful outcomes. The tools being introduced below do not use your data to train their models.

Introducing Gemini and NotebookLM

CTS is introducing two Google AI tools to the LakerApps domain - Gemini and NotebookLM. Both tools will be available to all students, faculty, and staff in time for the start of the fall semester on Aug. 25.

• Gemini can assist with a wide range of tasks, from brainstorming and writing to research and coding.
• NotebookLM is a research and note-taking assistant that allows you to upload and interact with documents, websites, videos and audio files. It can create summaries in text, audio and video formats, as well as generate questions and help find connections among different sources.

When these tools become available, you’ll be able to find them under the Google Apps grid where other Google apps like Calendar and Drive are listed.

To help you get started, Google has documentation for bothGemini and NotebookLM

CELT and CTS will also be offering workshops throughout the fall semester. CELT has a reading group and will be working with 10 faculty fellows who will be participating in a multicampus IITG funded grant program exploring AI and will be offering regular  AI gatherings.  Keep an eye on the CELT webpage and Oswego Today for more details.

Introducing Lumi for Brightspace

CTS and the Division of Extended Learning have been working with SUNY Online to integrate a new AI tool called Lumi into Brightspace. Lumi is now available for all faculty to use. 

Lumi is designed to assist faculty in creating engaging content for their courses. Faculty can use it to quickly generate ideas from existing module content (pages, assignments, discussions and most files). It can also generate quiz questions. 

Per SUNY’s agreement with Desire2Learn, users will not represent that output content is human generated when it is not. If you choose to use Lumi, it is recommended to add a statement in your course syllabus such as: AI tools have been leveraged to organize or generate quiz questions, discussions and/or assignments.

You can get started using Lumi by reviewing the Brightspace Lumi Overview page. 

Workshops will also be provided.  CELT will offer a workshop near the start of the semester that will be listed on the CELT webpage when it is available. SUNY Online is also providing workshops through the rest of August and September.

CTS, the Division of Extended Learning, and CELT are confident these new tools will be a great benefit to our SUNY Oswego community as they continue to build an AI campus. They look forward to seeing how you use them to innovate and succeed this academic year.

–Article brought to you by Campus Technology Services, the Division of Extended Learning, and the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning with help from Gemini