ALEJANDRA DASHE

My interest in accessibility began when I asked a simple question about making math content accessible in PDFs. Although I ultimately learned how to create accessible math documents, that effort positioned me as a visible leader and advocate for accessibility and Universal Design for Learning at ASU.

Community of Practice Leadership

I lead the Digital Accessibility Liaisons (DAL), a group of accessibility-focused professionals that serve in a communications capacity. In this role, I provide campus-wide leadership and strategic coordination for digital accessibility communications. My role includes supporting Liaisons across units, serving as a university-wide accessibility resource, and collaborating with accessibility leadership, including the Provost’s Office. Projects include initiatives that advance Title II compliance as well as sustainable, ongoing accessibility efforts beyond the Title II deadline 

Conference Planning

I was a project co-lead for the 2023 and 2024 ASU Accessibility Awareness Day Conference. I coordinated both in-person and virtual sessions and provided project management for day-of operations. Across both years, I supported logistics including food and beverage planning, Zoom setup and run-of-show management, speaker coordination and honoraria, swag, and cross-functional collaboration.

Instructional Design and Training

In collaboration with a team of instructional designers, I co-developed Accessible Course Creator Pathway, a training course focused on designing accessible online learning experiences. In 2023, we delivered this training to four audiences: ASU instructional designers, the Accessibility Awareness Day Conference, EdTech Open House, and InstructureCon.

I also co-developed Empowering Learners through Universal Design, a training course for instructional designers and faculty. My primary contribution was a digital accessibility review and remediation. I conducted page-by-page WCAG evaluations, provided guidance on meeting accessibility standards, and supported remediation efforts as requested. This course was presented at the 2024 ASU Accessibility Awareness Day Conference and the 2025 FOLC Fest Conference. 

Most recently, I served as a facilitator for the ASU Master Class for Teaching Online, supporting faculty as they developed online teaching skills. I provided guided feedback and resources, and collaborated with course developers to enhance the learner experience from both instructional design and digital accessibility perspectives.

AI Tool Development, Conference Presentations, and Grant Funding

I am part of the team that built an AI-powered transcription tool capable of transcribing video and audio content. I authored the original HTML and CSS output and co-wrote the AI prompts, while serving as the digital accessibility subject-matter expert.

This tool has generated significant cost savings. For example, transcribing 100 videos averaging seven minutes each would cost approximately $1,050 using human transcription services. Our tool reduces that cost to mere cents per video, producing substantial long-term savings.

My team and I presented this tool at the 2024 and 2025 FOLC Fest Conferences, and we presented the current iteration at the 2026 FOLC Fest Conference.

We also applied for and received full funding from the Principled Innovation in AI Mini-Grant sponsored by the ASU Learning Engineering Institute and ASU Principled Innovation. As a result, the tool gained significant institutional visibility, was designated a Presidential Priority project, and will be included in the Provost’s Learning Design Suite of AI-powered tools.

Current Projects

Using Claude Code, I developed a PDF Remediator Tool to improve document accessibility and presented this work at the 2026 FOLC Fest Conference. Here is the poster.  

I also serve as the thought leader and digital accessibility subject-matter expert for the Universal Learner Courses team and ASU broadly, delivering upcoming training and consultation to support the team in meeting Title II ADA requirements, such as PDF Remediation using Adobe Acrobat Pro, Google Workspace document remediation with Grackle Docs, and an accessibility tool finder to find solutions for remediating content. Also using Claude Code, I created these trainings and tools. 

I was on the team that built the StudyHall course series, and my role involved leading the MAT 142: College Math (now MAT 114) build in Canvas, and then supporting the conversion to Google Classroom. 

I redesigned the MAT 142 course around a story about house building. Likewise, I also improved the course's digital accessibility using tools like Equati0, support from PDF remediation services, and recreated PDFs into webpages & Google Doc templates. 

Additionally, I also co-created our team's project management tools for this project, co-designed the HTML for the video transcripts, and led the quality assurance process for all the Canvas versions of the four courses, which launched on March 7, 2023.