Administrative/Shared Services
- Hired new Executive Director Bill Curtis-Davidson
- Hired a dedicated client relationship manager to support customer engagement
- Expanded IT capacity by hiring Federal Work-Study students and a temporary technician to support technical needs
- Completed significant space improvements, including removing surplus furniture to prepare for return-to-office needs
- Renegotiated the USG system contract to transition to a fee-for-service model, replacing annual institutional charges
Braille
- Promoted two new leaders: Kimberly Martin and Rickie Johnson
- Transcribed and embossed a total of 2,217,030 braille pages
- Served 135 Georgia counties through the Georgia Department of Education contract
- Renewed the contract with the National Library Service (NLS)
- Delivered 2,500 hours of braille training to the Georgia Department of Correction’s Emanuel Prison Braille Program
- Established a new Tactile Technology lab open to students, faculty, and community members
Captioning and Described Media
- Provided real-time captioning for 3,788 college course sessions during the 2025 school year
- Served a total of 44 Deaf and hard of hearing students
- Captioned approximately 868 minutes of video content and made audio descriptions for about 754 minutes of content
- Conducted audits of AI tools for audio description and captioning to evaluate effectiveness
Customer Success
- Hired Dawn Evans as a Client Relationship Manager to strengthen relationships with current and prospective customers
- Created 493 support calls to serve internal and external stakeholders
- Maintained 258 active CIDI members in 2025, with 91 based in Georgia
- Added 28 new members in 2025, 46% of whom are in Georgia
- Modernized consultation system through Calend.ly
Document Accessibility Services (DAS)
- Rebranded the E-Text unit to Document Accessibility Services (DAS) to better reflect its offerings and improve clarity for customers
- Supported 57 schools and organizations and served 123 students and customers across 21 Georgia counties
- Completed 1,152 orders, producing more than 350,000 pages of accessible materials for individuals with print-related disabilities
- Introduced two new accessibility products: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) and fillable PDF forms
- Partnered with the Georgia Department of Revenue to make forms accessible, creating statewide impact
- Updated pricing to align with industry standards
- Integrated AI tools into workflow to enhance efficiency
ICT/UX
- Conducted 17 web accessibility evaluations
- Delivered 37 presentations, including sessions at major conferences
- Assisted states throughout the country to make their data collections of children with disabilities accessible through the federally funded Rhonda Weiss Center
- Provided governance and guidance for Georgia Tech and the University System of Georgia (USG)'a digital accessibility initiatives
- Contributed to student development through mentoring, course support, and capstone project guidance
Marketing & Communications
- Delivered strong year-over-year growth across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, including an impressive 191,564 impressions (up from 8,910)
- Achieved 22.6K YouTube views, a 49% increase from 2024
- Expanded email outreach efforts to support audience growth and customer engagement. Sent 23,250 emails with strong performance metrics
- Produced 35 longform articles, with 5 featured in the Daily Digest and 1 in The Whistle
- Redesigned the research section of the website to improve clarity, depth, and usability
- Launched a weekly all-staff email to share upcoming events, improve awareness, and enhance cross-unit collaborations
Outreach and Education
- Expanded statewide and national impact through 100+ presentations, trainings, and academic engagements
- Presented 13 guest lectures across major Georgia institutions
- Provided 2,500 hours of braille instruction to prisons in Georgia and Texas
- Taught 4 credit-bearing courses
- Strengthened community engagement through 47 tours and 28 outreach events
PubFile Nexus
- Supported 461 schools
- Onboarded 426 authorized users from the U.S. and 35 from Canada
- Processed 1,094 new student requests
- Successfully fulfilled 1,060 requests
- Achieved strong turnaround times, with 949 requests delivered immediately
Research
- Produced peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, and widely shared presentations
- Published journal articles in Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, The Gerontologist, Gerontechnology, and more
- Presented research nationally at major conferences on topics including tele-wellness, wheelchair-user fall detection, and AI for accessible medical information
- Released TechSAge data guides and the ACCESS-PD annual report
- Developed AI-simplified after-visit summaries benefitting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)
- Expanded access to Tele Tai Chi programs through Zoom
- Continued validation efforts for wheelchair-user fall-detection technologies
- Launched an AI Sandbox to support responsible innovation, now used across DAS, TFL, and other projects
SAM
- Onboarded Covenant College and Atlanta Technical College as new SAM customers
- Re-engaged Middle Georgia State University, strengthening an existing partnership
- Maintained strong relationships with institutions committed to accessible materials
Tools for Life
- Achieved significant statewide growth in 2025 across key service areas: accessible gaming, rural populations, and veterans
- Increased assistive technology device loans by 61%, reaching 715 total loans
- Expanded information and assistance activities by 38%, serving more than 2,100 individuals
- Refurbished and distributed 10,110 devices through the reuse program
- Provided 387 device demonstrations, most commonly for vision, daily living, and computer access
- Engaged more than 1,000 individuals through community events
- Reinforced TFL’s role in advancing access to assistive technology statewide
CIDI's Goals for 2026
- Research Horizons: Continue to deliver on existing research contracts while exploring new partnerships and collaborations with College of Design, Georgia Tech, and beyond.
- Expanding Core Services Contracts: Expand on what we do well to grow member-based and services income by expanding into new markets and offering new services.
- ADA Title II at Georgia Tech/University System of Georgia/Georgia Government: Support Georgia Tech’s compliance efforts.
- Audits for AI-Enabled Tech/Content: Explore how to expand audits for AI-enabled tech for government/ higher ed, ensuring accessibility for emerging technologies.
- Accessible Content Leveraging AI: Formalize role of AI tools to help make accessible content and integrate into CIDI workflows for increased output and efficiency.
- Expanding Education & Labs: Continue evolving how CIDI contributes to Georgia Tech’s academic enterprise by increasing student involvement and expanding educational & training opportunities.
- Impacting Georgia Communities: Show CIDI’s impact across State of Georgia – Georgia Tech, University System of Georgia, Government, Communities.
- Learning, Events & Visibility: Expand our visibility on campus, in Georgia, and beyond through events like the Alumni in Accessibility series and monthly lunch and learns.
What will 2026 bring?
