Gilbert Honored For Work With Digital Accessibility

Student Media Associate Director Jamie Lynn Gilbert was among three outstanding staff finalists at the Chancellor’s Creating Community Awards. Held on April 9 as part of the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity’s (now the Office of Equal Opportunity) Recognizing Excellence in Diversity (RED) event.

Held on April 7, 2024, the RED event recognizes outstanding faculty, staff, colleges, students, student organizations and alumni. The outstanding staff award specifically calls for a demonstrating a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion for staff who have gone beyond their administrative roles to address the needs and concerns of the NC State community.

“For the past several years, Jamie Lynn has strived to educate students at WKNC and Student Media about the importance of digital accessibility, ensuring all online content created by the radio station is accessible to individuals of varying abilities,” read her nomination letter. In spring 2024, Gilbert “revised her content creator training, provided to anyone interested in creating blogs, videos, podcasts or interviews for the radio station, with a new section directly highlighting digital accessibility… and created a new section on ensuring all students ask studio guests if they need any accommodations, providing examples of what that might look like. And of course, all her training has appropriate heading structures, color contrast and alt text on images.”

Since the RED event, Gilbert has created a new department-wide training called “Digital Accessibility for Student Media” she presented at the Student Media Training Day on Sept. 21 and at the College Broadcasters, Inc. National Student Electronic Media Convention Oct. 24 in Seattle.