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?
Brad Starkey-Owens
What is Your Title? UC Location?
Digital Accessibility Program Manager, UC Davis
What are Your Top IT/Security Priorities in 2026?
Filling Accessibility gaps in available tools and services.
What Emerging Tech Excites You for Higher Ed?
I get excited about the homegrown stuff. We’re in a nice moment where a lot of developers are working on improving access; but for all the scale applications, we have just as many little fill-in solutions that might improve the usability, or personalize a workflow. I think this “we can fix it” mindset is really powerful and can improve experiences for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access industry standard products.
What Emerging Tech Worries You?
It feels a little cliche, but I’m concerned about how quickly “we’ll ask A.I.” has become an automatic response to software questions. I see its value in specific applications, but I think it’s important to remain critical, and I see sustainability concerns if the cost of these suddenly ubiquitous technologies, financially and otherwise, continue to increase.
What Principles/Values Shape Your Leadership?
I talk a lot about “Capital A Accessibility” compliance versus functional access, and how we make sure we’re advancing both. While compliance is important (and my job), keeping the human being who needs our services at the center of decision making processes is really important to me. If we’re not improving the functional access of our users, then compliance isn’t serving our Dis/abled communities.
What Books Are You Currently Reading?
Fiction is a little hard for me for ADHD reasons, but I’m slowly working my way through Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo. I also recently picked up The Way Disabled People Love Each Other by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and am frequently poking around Authoring Autism by Melanie Yergeau.
What’s Your Favorite Thing to Do Outside of Work?
I love going to a movie theater to watch and review horror movies (find me on Letterboxd). I’m also really enjoying weightlifting with my partner, playing baseball with my kids, and recently watching a ton of pro softball and roller derby.
Thank you for the conversation, Brad!
Brad Starkey-Owens
Digital Accessibility Program Manager
UC Davis
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.
Are you a tech leader at UC? We’d love to hear from you! To participate, please complete the short Q&A form and please include a photo.
