Accessibility legislation has been ineffective at improving the accessibility of digital learning materials in post-secondary. Through a collection of disabled students’ experiences at a Canadian college, this project seeks to understand if the empathy of post-secondary employees is a significant motivating factor in creating and choosing more accessible digital learning material. In phase 1, disabled students (n = 5) co-designed a resource documenting their experiences with inaccessible content and how it impacted their learning. In phase 2, post-secondary employees (n = 7) viewed the resource and completed a survey. Engaging with disabled students' experiences led survey respondents to report finding the student narratives compelling and increased interest in accessible content creation. This research produced a rich collection of disabled students’ experiences with inaccessible content which will continue to influence post-secondary employees and exist as a dataset for future research. This study finds that students prefer digital content that is flexible to their needs, such as Word documents and web content, as opposed to rigid formats like PDFs and publisher platforms. Additionally, fostering greater empathy and understanding amongst post-secondary employees through student stories can influence attitudes toward improving digital accessibility where legislation has been ineffective.

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