About UX Impact Network

A usability, accessibility and UX research initiative, working with the public institutions that have no accessibility staff of their own.

Our mission

Bridging the gap between expertise and need

UX Impact Network connects supervised student practitioners with public universities, community colleges, and state and local government agencies to deliver digital accessibility assessments, usability evaluations and user experience research. Every engagement serves an institution and develops a practitioner at the same time.

Our vision: A United States where the digital services of public institutions work for every person who depends on them.

A group of 3 students collaborating
Our values

What we stand for

Human-centered

Technology serves people. Design decisions are informed by the lived experiences of the users who depend on these systems.

Accessibility as a foundation

Every American deserves equal access to public digital services, regardless of ability. Accessibility is not an afterthought, it is integral to good UX.

Evidence-based practice

All work is grounded in rigorous, established methodologies, not assumptions or aesthetic preferences.

Research-driven

UX Impact Network contributes to the field by documenting what it finds across engagements: which accessibility failures recur, and which fixes actually hold.

Learn by doing

The best way to train UX and accessibility professionals is through supervised, real-world practice with real institutions and real users.

Findings shared, not shelved

What we learn in one engagement is written up and published, so institutions we never work with can act on it too.

A group of 3 students collaborating
Documentation and dissemination

Built to be adopted, not just admired

An assessment helps one institution. A method that other people can pick up and run helps the ones we will never reach. As the initiative grows we will publish the materials our own engagements are built on.

  • Usability and accessibility assessment frameworks
  • UX research methodology guides
  • Methodology training modules
  • Professional assessment report templates

The measure of this work is not how many assessments we personally conduct, but how many institutions are able to meet their obligations because the methods, the findings and the practitioners exist.

Be part of the network

Whether you work at a public institution that needs this, or you are a student ready to do the work, we want to hear from you.

Partner with us → Apply as a student →