Accessibility Work in Academia: Balancing Needs, Bridging Gaps, and Breaking Down Barriers

Universities grow increasingly committed to equal access for individuals with disabilities, balancing the appearance of inclusion while upholding values of academic rigour. Within these universities, employees working in accessibility must mediate an unstable web of organizational and technological infrastructures. This study examines the government mandates, organizational structures, processes, and policies in a research university in Canada aimed at meeting the accessibility needs of its students. Our findings suggest that there is an interplay between informal and formal practices to navigate the institutional systems. Technology serves as a mediator in the “behind-the-scenes" work that occurs at the intersection of infrastructures. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations to better support accessibility work in universities. We suggest the use of seamful design to support ongoing negotiations of access and other accessibility work across distributed networks. Seamful design aligns to the dynamic nature of disability and attends to the inevitable encounter of gaps. By embracing seamful design and fostering interdependence, designers can help redistribute the invisible labour of accessibility work to the designed systems themselves.