Project Charter

3/19/2025 

Project Title:  Accessible Presentation Resources Project

Project Start Date:  2/22/2025

Projected Finish Date: 4/24/2025

Budget Information:  143.5 total project hours

Project Manager:  Kate Carroll, 401-258-8646, kateamaralcarroll@gmail.com

Project Objectives: 

Universities must comply with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which requires that all current and newly created digital content meets updated accessibility standards by April 2026. The Charlton College of Business (CCB) does not currently include accessible communication training as a standard part of its course curriculum. Our objective is to provide students with some basic tools and resources needed to create and deliver accessible presentations. This will create a more inclusive learning environment and will provide students with an added marketable skill to benefit them in their future career paths.

Success Criteria: 

Provide the following three (3) accessible deliverables* to the project sponsor by 4/24/2025:

1. Accessible PPT Template for students with CCB Branding

2. List of Accessibility resources (for CCB to share with students)

3. Pre-recorded presentation on how and when to use the provided resources (for CCB to share with their community).

*The deliverables must meet the updated Americans with Disabilities Act – Title II standards for the accessibility of digital content and will require vetting by a UMass accessibility professional involved with the UMass Digital Accessibility Project (either within UMassD or the UMPO) prior to presenting to the Project Sponsor (PM) for final sign-off. 

Approach:  

Following a predictive, linear, waterfall approach has been chosen for this project given that we have a well-defined scope, anticipate low levels of stakeholder feedback, and our project is guided by well-defined regulatory standards (i.e., ADA Title II). 

Assumptions & Constraints: 

Our project is valuable to CCB and serves a documented need. CCB supports the project deliverables and is willing to facilitate their use by CCB students. Financial investment by CCB is minimal and only relates to the cost of 2 hours of faculty salary as time investment for our project sponsor feedback. This project will require a total time investment of 143.5 project hours: 

• 45.5 hours for the Project Manager, 

• 45.25 hours for the Accessibility Subject Matter Expert (SME), 

• 45.25 hours for the PowerPoint SME, 

• 2 hours of feedback from the Project Sponsor 

• 5.5 hours for the professional Accessibility Specialist. 

The project has strict time constraints related to the end of the spring term and course assignment submission deadlines. 

Communications: 

The PM commits to posting weekly project status updates and summaries of team meetings through the Canvas Group email. Stakeholder communication will be conducted on an as-needed basis by the PM. Team members will use the Canvas Group email function for all non-urgent communications. For urgent communications requiring a same-day response, the message sender will follow up by text. The accessibility SME will create a document in SharePoint for all project documents so that all team members can access and edit the document. The PM will post the SharePoint document links in the Canvas Group Discussion Board for easy access. The PM is responsible for submitting the final draft document to the Canvas group assignment submission page and Google Site. 

In addition, the PM will host a recurring weekly meeting via Zoom and has sent calendar invitations to team members’ Gmail and UMassD email accounts. Meetings can be re-scheduled as needed and as determined by team members.  

Roles and Responsibilities

• Name: Hailee Cabral
  Position: Accessibility SME
  Role: Incorporate accessibility requirements into deliverables 1 and 3. Provide deliverable 2.
  Contact Information: haileesky@gmail.com, 508-838-8171

• Susmitha Digumarthi
  Position: PowerPoint SME
  Role: Provide Final Deliverables 1 and 3
  Contact Information: susmithadigumarthi@gmail.com, 774-528-5317

• Kate Carroll
  Position: Project Manager
  Role: Manage Project integration, scope, schedule, resources, communication, risk and stakeholders
  Contact Information: kateamaralcarroll@gmail.com, 401-258-8646

• Soheil Sibdari, PhD
  Position: Project Sponsor
  Role: Provide sponsor feedback and sign off on final deliverables
  Contact Information: ssibdari@umassd.edu