Stanford University

The Challenge

Stanford's existing course management portal had been extended and patched for over a decade. Navigation was non-linear, screen-reader support was inconsistent, and mobile usage — which represented 41% of student logins — was an afterthought. Accessibility complaints under Section 508 were escalating.

Meanwhile, the faculty experience for building and publishing course content had calcified around a workflow that pre-dated modern rich-text editing. Uploading a video lecture required four separate steps across two different admin interfaces. Assignment rubrics lived in Word documents that were manually uploaded and version-tracked in email threads.

Stanford's IT team had the infrastructure expertise but not the product velocity to redesign this at the speed the administration demanded. They needed an external squad that could build and ship fast without compromising on compliance or integration depth.

The Solution

We began with an intensive two-week discovery: accessibility audits of the existing system, interviews with 14 faculty members across 6 departments, and usability sessions with students representing different accessibility needs — including users relying on screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and high-contrast display settings.

The platform we designed operates as a companion to Stanford's existing SIS (Banner), not a replacement. Every piece of student data — enrollment, grades, course history — flows in via secure API. Faculty manage content inside the new platform; grades sync back to Banner automatically.

Accessibility wasn't a final checklist — it was baked into every component. We built a shared component library with accessibility built into the primitives: focus management, ARIA labeling, keyboard navigation, and color-contrast ratios were spec'd before the first screen was designed.

What We Built

• Accessible Course Shell — a WCAG 2.1 AA compliant course homepage with semantic HTML, skip navigation links, landmark regions, and full keyboard operability. Tested with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver at every iteration.
• Faculty Content Studio — a rich-text and block-based course builder where faculty drag in video lectures (hosted on Stanford's Panopto instance), readings, assignments, and discussion prompts. No file upload queues, no mode-switching.
• Assignment & Rubric Builder — in-platform rubric creation with weighted criteria, peer review workflow, and automatic grade passback to Banner via LTI 1.3. Replaces the Word-doc-in-email system entirely.
• Stanford SSO Integration — SAML 2.0 integration with Stanford's Shibboleth identity provider — single sign-on for students and faculty, with role-based access enforced at the data layer, not just the UI.
• Adaptive Video Player — accessible media player with closed caption support, transcript view, speed controls, and Panopto embed via API. Captions auto-generated with accuracy review workflow for faculty.
• Discussion Boards — threaded, screen-reader-navigable discussion forums with instructor pinning, anonymous post option, and notification preferences. No third-party forum tool — built natively for full accessibility control.
• Analytics for Instructors — engagement data per student: video watch time, assignment submission timing, discussion participation, and at-risk flags for students showing disengagement patterns.

Results