Key takeaways:
- Accessibility has moved beyond compliance: Institutions are shifting from simply providing accommodations to building inclusive learning environments where every student can thrive.
- Students are arriving more prepared: Better support at school and the age of AI mean students know their needs, ask specific questions, and often already have a preferred toolset.
- Technology is outpacing policy: New AI tools launch weekly, but institutional processes take months to catch up. That gap is one of the biggest structural challenges facing Disability Services teams today.
- STEM accessibility is a rising priority: Screen readers, dictation software, and speech-to-text tools are seeing surging demand from STEM students.
- The best tools empower independence: Great accessibility work starts with the student, matches the tool to their learning style, and rejects the one-size-fits-all mindset.
Today's Disability Services teams are navigating a landscape where new AI tools launch weekly, budgets are stretched thin, and students arrive on campus with more knowledge about their own needs. The pressure to keep up and the risk of falling behind land hardest on the students who need the most support.
In our recent Genio webinar, we sat down with Bianca Hernandez, Alternative Media Technology Specialist at Las Positas College in Livermore, California, to unpack the trends reshaping student accessibility services heading into 2026.
How is the student accessibility landscape changing?
For years, accessibility work in higher education focused on providing accommodations that met institutional requirements. Today, it has broadened considerably, with Disability Services teams committed to building inclusive learning environments where every student feels welcomed, supported, and confident enough to participate.
That shift is showing up in the students themselves.
Students arriving on college campuses are far more familiar with the language of accessibility than students who enrolled five years ago. As a result, they arrive at college knowing exactly which assistive technologies have worked for them in the past.
"Students are the ones coming with questions about accommodations. They're a lot more knowledgeable about what their needs are." - Bianca Hernandez, Alternative Media Technology Specialist at Las Positas College
For Disability Services teams, that changes the shape of the work. Instead of leading students to the right accommodation, the conversation increasingly starts with what the student already knows and how to build on it.
Read more about how streamlined accommodations can improve student outcomes.
Which assistive technologies are making the biggest difference for students?
Assistive technology in higher education has expanded significantly over the past few years, and students today have access to a wider toolkit than at any point in the past. Today's options span:
- AI-supported note taking tools like Genio Notes, which records, transcribes, and organizes lectures so students can review at their own pace.
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text software for students who process information better through audio, or who need help getting their thoughts onto the page.
- Reading support and captioning for lectures and course materials.
- Digital textbook access so students can read on the device that works best for them, without having to open a physical book in class.
- Screen readers built into Canvas (Immersive Reader), Microsoft Edge (Read Aloud), Google Chrome, and Apple devices.
Bianca has watched students go from struggling to keep up in lectures to actively participating, because they were no longer focused on writing every word. Digital textbook access has also helped students avoid the visibility of their differences in the classroom.
Real accessibility means moving beyond compliance and thinking about what creates a supportive, inclusive, welcoming office for every student who walks through the door.
Read more about how Genio Notes supports students with additional needs in higher education.
Why is STEM accessibility becoming a bigger priority in Disability Services?
The most significant shift Bianca has seen in her recent student cohort is a surge in demand from students studying STEM subjects. Chemistry, math, physics, and other science-heavy pathways are increasingly bringing students into her office with specific accessibility needs, including digital textbooks, audio versions of course materials, and screen readers capable of handling dense technical content.
The complexity lies in the content itself. Chemistry equations, mathematical notation, and scientific formatting all require thoughtful, capable support from the underlying assistive technology, and not every tool on the market handles that detail well.
That reality is pushing accessibility teams to keep learning alongside students, carefully testing new tools and identifying which ones truly meet the demands of STEM coursework and which ones fall short when the material gets challenging.
Alongside the STEM shift, Bianca has seen a noticeable rise in student interest around dictation, voice typing, and speech-to-text tools. For students who process information more comfortably through speech than through typing, these technologies remove a real barrier to producing coursework and can transform the way they approach written assignments.
Read more about how Genio Notes supports STEM students by exploring the Genio STEM Hub.
How should Disability Services teams evaluate and introduce new tools?
Bianca's process is grounded in a student-first principle. Every conversation begins with the learner, before any tool is evaluated.
Her tool adoption journey typically follows a clear structure:
- Understand the student's context: What classes are they taking? How do they currently study? What is working and what is not?
- Identify where challenges begin: Walking through the exact moment where studying breaks down surfaces the real barrier.
- Demonstrate the tool on the device the student will actually use: A tool that looks perfect on a specialist's laptop may look completely different on a student's phone or tablet.
- Adjust as needed: Some students record in class on their phone and review at home on a laptop, so the tool needs to work across both.
- Follow up thoroughly: Every appointment ends with an email, a workshop invite, and an open door for the student to come back.
"Talk to your students. Absorb what they're saying. It's going to help you later vet tools and see what's going to really work." - Bianca Hernandez, Alternative Media Technology Specialist at Las Positas College
Her advice for Disability Services teams evaluating new technology is to attend demos and training continuously, even when there is no immediate need to switch tools. Staying up to date on what is available means teams can move quickly when a student presents a need that existing tools do not meet.
What role is AI playing in student accessibility?
AI is one of the most talked-about forces in higher education today, and its impact on student accessibility is evolving as quickly as the technology itself. For Bianca, the most exciting shift AI is opening up is one of student independence, with learners gaining more control over how they capture, review, and study course material than at any point in the past.
Traditional Disability Services support in the pre-COVID era relied heavily on peer notetakers, instructor office hours, and in-person tutoring. Post-COVID, digital tools have collapsed those wait times.
With a tool like Genio Notes, students can record their own lectures, review at their own pace, organize notes to fit their visual preferences, generate study guides, and test their understanding with AI-generated quizzes.
"AI shouldn't replace learning. It should remove the barriers so that students can engage in learning based on their preferred approach." - Bianca Hernandez, Alternative Media Technology Specialist at Las Positas College
Read more about the strategies to implement AI for better student engagement.
How can Disability Services teams collaborate with faculty?
For Disability Services teams, faculty collaboration is one of the most important levers for improving student outcomes, and one of the most persistent challenges to get right.
Good collaboration starts with relationships. Faculty do not need to become accessibility experts themselves. They need someone they trust who can guide them, answer questions, and interpret accommodation plans in real time.
What that looks like in practice includes:
- Quick, direct conversations when specific accommodation questions arise. For example, explaining why a PDF of a test needs to be shared two days before the accommodated exam rather than fifteen minutes before.
- Partnered workshops between Disability Services and the campus teaching and learning center, where faculty can see accessibility from both perspectives.
- A shared responsibility framing across the institution. The California Chancellor's Office has been influential in positioning accessibility as everyone's responsibility.
"Technology alone doesn't create access. Access comes from listening to the students, making them feel welcomed, and building those relationships." - Bianca Hernandez, Alternative Media Technology Specialist at Las Positas College
The pace of change facing Disability Services teams will not slow down any time soon. Even as new tools and expectations shift, the fundamentals of good accessibility work stay the same.
Institutions that listen to their students, invest in campus relationships, and choose tools that empower independence over compliance will be the ones best placed to support learners heading into 2026 and beyond.
Want to see how Genio Notes could support Disability Services teams and students at your institution?
