About
Built by someone who has lived the problem.
Gevell was founded by Laura Hopkins — a practitioner who spent years inside a large public university working to ensure every digital resource met federal accessibility standards, and who built this platform so every organization can do the same. Laura's experience has convinced her that we must all make accessibility a habit. Having easy-to-use tools at a decent cost point is part of that habit for those that don't have the time or money to invest in training and development programs.
- CPACC
- MS ITM
- CAPM
- CTCD / CTCM
Laura Hopkinsshe / her
Founder, Gevell · EIR Accessibility Coordinator (part-time), UT Arlington
Laura is a recognized digital accessibility practitioner in higher education. Since 2018 she has led the Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) accessibility program at The University of Texas at Arlington, working with leadership across every department to ensure that every digital resource — websites, PDFs, videos, software — meets federal standards and is genuinely usable by people with disabilities.
Laura understands where accessibility programs succeed and, more often, where they quietly break down: procurement decisions made without reading a VPAT, remediation projects launched without a way to measure progress, institutions starting from scratch for the tenth time because no one wrote anything down.
Gevell is her answer to that pattern — a suite of purpose-built tools that embed the hard-won knowledge of a working accessibility coordinator into software any organization can use, whether or not they have Laura on staff.
Default: In 2026 Laura moved to a part-time position at UT Arlington to dedicate the majority of her time to Gevell. She continues to speak at conferences and workshops on digital accessibility topics including how accessibility intersects with procurement.
Credentials
Certifications that span accessibility practice, project management, and public-sector procurement.
- CPACC
- Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies
- IAAP — International Association of Accessibility Professionals
- MS ITM
- Master of Science in Information Technology Management
- CAPM
- Certified Associate in Project Management
- PMI — Project Management Institute
- CTCD / CTCM
- Certified Texas Contract Developer / Manager
- State of Texas Procurement Certifications
Career milestones
2018
Joined UT Arlington as EIR Accessibility Coordinator, building the university's electronic accessibility program from the ground up.
2022
Created the VPAT® Scorecard — a letter-grade system that translates dense conformance reports into actionable risk ratings for procurement teams.
2023
Presented the VPAT® Scorecard at Educause Virtual Conference and volunteered as a speaker at WordPress Accessibility Day.
2025
Began teaching "Show Me an EIR Accessibility Program That Works!" and VPAT/ACR workshops at Knowbility's John Slatin AccessU.
2026
Moved to a part-time role at UT Arlington to focus full-time on Gevell — bringing institution-grade accessibility tools to every organization.
Speaking & teaching
Laura regularly shares what works — and what doesn’t — with accessibility practitioners across higher education and government.
Knowbility's John Slatin AccessU
2025, 2026- Show Me an EIR Accessibility Program That Works!
- How to Score a VPAT / ACR
- Accessible Word Documents (and how to make them an accessible PDF)
Educause Virtual Conference
2023- The VPAT® Scorecard: letter-grade accessibility ratings for procurement teams
WordPress Accessibility Day
2023- Volunteer speaker
“Accessibility isn’t a project you finish. It’s a practice you maintain.”
Laura has worked for years to create methods for systematic reviews and workflows but partnering with Larry Anglin launched these processes into a much more advanced output.