Primary funding for DO-IT and its projects is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education.

[citation needed] The DO-IT Center was founded at the University of Washington in 1992 by Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Since its inception, DO-IT's mission has been to increase the successful participation of people with disabilities in postsecondary education and careers at local, regional, national (within the United States) and international levels.

[4] AccessCollege staff worked with a team of faculty and administrators representing twenty-three two- and four-year institutions in the U.S.; the project included creation of the web-based Center for Universal Design in Education (CUDE), publication of the book Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principles to Practice,[5] and the training manual Building Capacity for a Welcoming and Accessible Postsecondary Institution.

These resources include the DO-IT Knowledge Base, a searchable, comprehensive online database of articles, case studies and promising practices related to accessibility of technology, postsecondary education, graduate school, and careers.

Articles, training materials, and tutorials address a wide range of accessibility issues, including: The DO-IT Center's AccessSTEM/AccessComputing/DO-IT Longitudinal Transition Study (ALTS) reports positive outcomes for students with disabilities who participate in DO-IT programs, including greater-than-the-national-average participation in STEM fields.