Café Conversations Series | Center for Teaching Excellence

About the Series

Imagine combining the warmth of your favorite coffee shop with practical, hands-on professional development. That’s the essence of Café Conversations. These intimate, collaborative workshops create a relaxed environment where educators gather to share experiences, learn new skills, and tackle real challenges together.

This semester’s accessibility focus couldn’t be more timely. Whether you’re new to accessibility or looking to refine your skills, these sessions will equip you with practical tools and strategies you can implement immediately.

Each conversation is designed to be interactive and supportive, giving you space to ask questions, share challenges, and learn alongside colleagues who understand the realities of today’s teaching environment.

Please Note:

You must have a Passport Portal account to register for these workshops. Create an account or learn more about the Passport program.

Spring Workshops:

Café Conversations: Course and Web Accessibility from the Faculty Perspective

Instructor: Kate Norris
02/11/2026 | 2:00 PM -3:00 PM
Online

This workshop equips faculty with practical accessibility skills using Canvas Ally, link validation, Microsoft Accessibility Assistant, Acrobat tools, Mediasite captioning, and syllabus updates. Learn essential steps to improve course materials, remediate old content, and create more inclusive learning environments through easy, high‑impact accessibility techniques.

Provided in this session will be “Tips and Tricks” to help improve your course and web accessibility:

Basic Steps
Canvas Ally Accessibility Tool
Canvas Validate Links in Content
Word & PowerPoint, Accessibility Assistant
Acrobat Pro: Export PDF to Word, and Combine Files
UF Mediasite: How Users can add Mediasite Captioning to recorded videos.
Adding a Note to the Syllabus
Old Course Content

Passport categories: Great Online Teaching, Digital Literacy, Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access

Café Conversations: Creating Accessible Course Materials for Beginners

Instructor: Laura Jervis
02/18/2026 | 1:55 PM – 2:55 PM
ONLINE

Accessibility ensures equitable access to education for a diverse population by providing multiple avenues to the same information. In this workshop you’ll take away actionable best practices for ensuring that course materials you create are accessible for all students, including students with disabilities.

Passport categories: Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access

Café Conversations: PDF Remediation with Adobe Acrobat Pro

Instructors: Chris Pinkoson and our student consultant Sherrie Files-Aime
02/25/2026 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
ONLINE

Do you use PDFs in your course? In this session we will provide a brief introduction to PDF accessibility, discuss potential alternatives, and demonstrate the basic expectations for and challenges with remediating a PDF document.
Register for PDF Remediation with Adobe Acrobat Pro workshop here.

Passport categories: Digital Literacy, Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access

Café Conversations: Course and Web Accessibility from the Faculty Perspective

Instructor: Kate Norris
3/4/2026 | 2:00 PM -3:00 PM
Online

Provided in this session will be “Tips and Tricks” to help improve your course and web accessibility:

Basic Steps
Canvas Ally Accessibility Tool
Canvas Validate Links in Content
Word & PowerPoint, Accessibility Assistant
Acrobat Pro: Export PDF to Word, and Combine Files
UF Mediasite: How Users can add Mediasite Captioning to recorded videos.
Adding a Note to the Syllabus
Old Course Content

Passport categories: Great Online Teaching, Digital Literacy, Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access

Café Conversations: Accessibility for Canvas

Instructor: Cooper Greenfield
03/13/2026 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
ONLINE

In this hour session, we’ll discuss identifying Accessibility issues in Canvas with Ally and UDOIT, as well as other resources available for general Accessibility.

Passport categories: Great Online Teaching, Digital Literacy, Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access

Café Conversations: Lessons Learned from Accessibility Roll Out

Instructor: Jodi Taylor
3/25/2026 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
ONLINE

This session will review course and program approaches to accessibility, additional needs identified during roll out, and tips to reduce accessibility compliance burden for faculty, staff, and students.

Passport categories: Great Online Teaching, Digital Literacy, Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access

Café Conversations: Textbook/Course Material Adoption and Accessibility

Instructor: Ryan Rushing
04/08/2026 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Online

In this workshop, we will identify what the instructor is responsible for in ensuring the accessibility of course materials, textbooks, and courseware. For faculty using courseware not provided through the bookstore, we will discuss the questions you need to ask your publisher and how to assess whether the materials comply with accessibility standards. The majority of the session will be open Q&A and discussion on any topic relating to the accessibility of course materials.

Passport categories: Great Online Teaching, Digital Literacy, Holistic Teaching, Student-Focused Teaching, UDL & Access