Carey Applegate, Ph.D.

Director, Digital Accessibility

Dr. Applegate joined COLRS in April 2023 after nearly two decades combined experience in instructional design, educational program/project management, and university-level teaching and research in English education. She leads the Digital Accessibility Remediation Team. In addition to her work with COLRS, Carey also serves as an affiliate faculty member at Bradley University’s English department, where she teaches online courses. 

She has authored and co-authored a number of academic pieces at the intersection of equity in education, English education, and popular culture. In addition, she has also presented regionally and nationally and has led workshops in these and other areas, including rhetorics of activism, mentoring student researchers, online learning, competency-based education, and authentic assessment. Dr. Applegate holds a doctorate in English education from Illinois State University, a masters in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi, and a certificate in instructional design from the University of Illinois.  

Ella Ferguson

Digital Accessibility Staff

Ella Ferguson specializes in PowerPoints and PDFs. She enjoys reading, listening to music, and playing with her dogs when she is not busy. Her long-term goal is to finish graduate school and find a job with a small business.

Ira Joshi

Undergraduate Student Employee

Ira Joshi is a junior at UIS majoring in Legal Studies and is part of the women’s golf team. She specializes in DART video captioning. After graduating she hopes to attend law school. 

Connor McFadden

Undergraduate Student Employee

Connor McFadden is a third-year Mathematics major at UIS who specializes in video captioning and PDF remediation with DART. He is a member of the soccer team at UIS. In his free time, he enjoys going to the gym and hiking. He plans on pursuing a Master's and later a career in data analytics. 

Christabel Bamigbade

Undergraduate Student Employee

Christabel Bamigbade is a freshman at UIS majoring in Computer Science with an Economics minor. She specializes in PPTs, PDFs and videos. She enjoys watching anime and comedy shows during her free time. After graduating, she hopes to work for a while and eventually start her own business.