UC Tech News is excited to launch the UC Tech Leaders Q&A Series in 2026—a series designed to spotlight the voices shaping technology across UC.
What is Your Name?
Adam Hills-Meyer
What is Your Title? UC Location?
Digital Accessibility Program Manager, UC Santa Cruz
What are Your Top IT/Security Priorities in 2026?
My top priority is making sure everyone has equal access to UCSC’s technology and services. To get there, I’m focused on strengthening our digital accessibility framework — building accessibility into our work from day one, rather than fixing it after the fact, and making steady, manageable improvements over time. Building accessibility in from the start means teaching people that accessibility is part of their job, not a fix to add on later. It’s a steady investment in building real skill over time, not a one-time checkbox.
What Emerging Tech Excites You for Higher Ed?
Honestly, I’d rather get the fundamentals right before chasing the newest technology. To me, real innovation isn’t about new tech or tools — it’s about clearly identifying the problem you’re solving, carefully designing the solution, and testing it with the people who’ll actually use it. I’ve seen plenty of cases where a team jumped on a promising technology, only to find later that it didn’t deliver. How we design a solution can be just as important and innovative as what we design.
What Emerging Tech Worries You?
I worry about any technology that hasn’t carefully considered how and why people would actually use it. Artificial intelligence is the clear example. I wish more AI tools were designed with real thought about how they’d benefit the people using them. Instead, many of the current tools produce content that isn’t accessible, can be riddled with inaccurate information, and pose large questions when it comes to their social, environmental, and ethical impacts. Specifically, people tend to be looking towards AI to solve issues with inaccessible digital content. Machines do some of the work, but not all of it, and they don’t do well when it comes to how unique people are, and that includes the vast diversity of disability. I am concerned that people will assume that simply asking AI to make accessible content is an end solution. Colleagues of mine who work in accessibility and digital content tend to agree: AI can handle part of the job, but not all of it — and the work needs to be verified. At the same time, I don’t want to dismiss innovations that might help simplify how we can create more equity. There’s a balance in between that requires more thought and understanding.
How Do You Balance Innovation with Security?
I don’t think of innovation and security as opposing forces that play against each other — that framing usually means security gets brought in too late, as a gate right before launch. It’s the same bad pattern I see in accessibility. Bolting it on at the end is expensive and adversarial. Building it in from the start just shapes good design. My approach is to bring security into the conversation while something is still being designed, not after it’s built — so most of the tension gets resolved in the design process, not a last-minute reaction.
What Principles/Values Shape Your Leadership?
People and human dignity matter most to me, and I always aim for building empathy into the decisions that I make. Before proposing any change, I want our teams to think through the real impact on people’s lives. Human centered design means doing some harder work upfront: clearly defining what problem we are solving for, understanding who’s affected and how, and asking people directly what issues they’re running into — rather than jumping straight to a solution. Then, taking that information and turning it into clear, actionable guidance on what people should actually do. Throughout, I keep coming back to the core reason why we are acting — making sure the solution we are proposing will actually be effective for the specific problem at hand. Being kind to one another and solving business problems can be done together, if we make that choice.
What Books are You Currently Reading?
I’m going back through reads that I feel like I should have already read, but haven’t yet. My current read is Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
What’s Your Favorite Thing to Do Outside of Work?
A good day off would include some mountain biking, listening to some music, seeing something new, and spending some down time with my partner.
Thank you for the conversation, Adam!
Adam Hills-Meyer
Digital Accessibility Program Manager
UC Santa Cruz
Tech Leader Spotlights
UC Tech News is excited to launch the UC Tech Leaders Q&A Series in 2026—designed to spotlight the voices shaping technology across UC. The UC tech community values hearing directly from its leaders, and this series aims to be both inspiring and informative.
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