Capacity Building Award 2025: Kate Sonka of Teach Access
By Maya Cakmak, AccessComputing PI
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 AccessComputing Capacity Building Award goes to Kate Sonka, executive director of Teach Access. This award honors AccessComputing partners who forge pathways that meaningfully advance accessibility in computing. Through her leadership, Kate has expanded how educators, technologists, and institutions integrate accessibility into computing education and practice.
Kate has led Teach Access since 2019 and brings experience across higher education, industry, and nonprofit organizations. Under her leadership, Teach Access has grown from a largely volunteer-run initiative into a fully staffed 501(c)(3) that equips thousands of faculty and students with the knowledge and tools to build accessible technology. She has championed faculty development, immersive learning experiences, and strategies for embedding accessibility into curricula at scale.
Teach Access itself has seen remarkable growth in recent years. Since 2021, the organization has formalized a governing board, secured more than $3 million in funding, expanded its programs and resource offerings, and reached over 700,000 students and 2,000 faculty across more than 200 U.S. institutions. Its mission—to prepare a future workforce that designs technology born accessible—continues to gain national momentum and is closely aligned with our NSF AccessComputing Workforce Alliance. With a new three-year strategic planning effort underway, Teach Access is poised for its next phase of impact and we are thrilled to continue our partnership with them under Kate’s leadership.
Kate’s work exemplifies what the Capacity Building Award seeks to recognize: Vision, collaboration, and sustained contributions that strengthen the pipeline of accessibility-aware technologists. Please join us in congratulating Kate Sonka and Teach Access on this well-deserved recognition, and in celebrating the continued growth of accessibility leadership across our community.