2026 WA GIS Conference: Full Schedule

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11:00am PDT

GIS Digital Accessibility at the City of Seattle

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

The GIS team in Seattle IT has partnered with a citywide digital accessibility effort to advance digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities.

This presentation describes the organizational and technical strategies and tools that the City of Seattle has launched to support departmental communications teams and technical owners of GIS applications. A brief description of the City’s centralized approach to the Department of Justice ruling on digital accessibility offers context for the technical resources that Seattle IT is providing to City department owners of GIS content, to inventory, assess, remediate, and track progress towards compliance with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

The Seattle IT GIS team works closely with the Citywide Digital Accessibility Compliance (CDAC) project to establish methods for managing inventories of items, methods and tools for assessing accessibility compliance, and resources for remediation. In addition, the team developed time-saving guides that note the level of maturity of commonly used GIS vendor products, which helps direct attention to areas where GIS content creators can have an impact on accessibility.

A citywide emphasis has been established to ensure that any new content is built to be digitally accessible. Recommendations, best practices, documentation and tools are delivered to staff in many modes, from newsletter tips about built-in tools for making slide decks more accessible, to content-rich SharePoint sites with guidance for GIS content creators.

Strategies (keep it simple!), resources, outreach, self-help channels, training, and cohorts are important pieces of the formula to help content creators learn digital accessibility skills and gain confidence.

Speakers

Zinta Smidchens

Manager, GIS CADD Programs and Initiatives, City of Seattle IT GIS

Working in private and public sectors, large and small organizations, the field and the office has offered so many opportunities to see geography’s role in solving problems.

After earning a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, Zinta Smidchens began at the Indiana Geological Survey, mapping Lake Michigan’s post-glacial shoreline history and much older deposits exposed on the rock faces in Indiana’s limestone quarries. On the west coast, Zinta joined... Read More →

Catherine Wendland

GIS Analyst, City of Seattle

As a GIS Analyst for the City of Seattle, Catherine Wendland is on a mission to elevate how GIS serves both City staff and the public. She specializes in training, guidance, and refining centralized GIS standards, ensuring Seattle’s hundreds of GIS users are equipped to navigate... Read More →

Suzy Brunzell

WebGIS Program Manager, City of Seattle

Suzy Brunzell serves as the City of Seattle WebGIS Program Manager. Her professional goals involve maintaining a highly functional Web GIS environment where users can operate effectively with confidence in the data and content available to them. At work, nothing makes Suzy happier... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
407-408

Accessibility, Seattle

2026 WA GIS Conference

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2026 WA GIS Conference

11:00am PDT

Zinta Smidchens

Catherine Wendland

Suzy Brunzell

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