If you've ever run an Ally course accessibility report and found a long list of untagged PDFs, you know the feeling: the problem is clear, but the path forward is time-consuming. Tagging PDFs for accessibility is one of the most technically demanding parts of document remediation -- and it's often where momentum stalls.

UMBC has been selected to participate in Ally's Auto-tagging Early Adopter Program, which means instructors now have access to a new feature designed to do that heavy lifting automatically. Ally can generate a tag structure for untagged PDFs directly in Blackboard -- and importantly, you review and approve those changes before anything is applied to your file.

Image: Ally interface showing auto-generated PDF tag verification. 

Early Adopter Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can instructors review changes before they are applied? Yes. Instructors will be able to review the automatically generated tag structure and must approve the changes before they are applied to the document. They will also have the option of downloading the original file before the changes are applied. 
2. Is tagging applied at the individual tag level or document level? Approval is applied at the document level. Once reviewed and confirmed, the tagging is applied to the entire document -- not selectively by tag/item. 
3. Can individual tags be edited or approved separately? No, the approval process is applied at the document level, not individual tags. 
4. What happens to the original PDF after tagging? A new, remediated version replaces the original file in Blackboard, and that updated version is what students will access and download.
5. Can I batch auto‑tag multiple PDFs at once? No, auto‑tagging is focused on individual documents to align with the instructor workflow and ensure each file can be reviewed and finalized before changes are applied. 
6. How accurate is the auto-tagging process? Testing shows high levels of quality and accuracy, but like all tools, human review remains an important part of the process as we expect edge cases to pop up based on the variety of PDFs available today. 
7. Does Auto Tagging fix other PDF issues? No, Auto-Tagging will not address all PDF issues like image description, tables, and color contrast. Ally can remediate certain things in your PDF such as setting the language, setting a title, and applying OCR for smaller PDFs.

As an early adopter, UMBC receives access to this feature ahead of the broader community, and our feedback will help shape how it develops. A couple of things to know as you try it out:

• If you encounter any issues or bugs in the feature, please submit a ticket to the Online Learning queue so our team can forward it to Blackboard support. 
• If you’d like to share general feedback or comments at any time, you can use the Ally Auto-tagging PDFs Feature Quick Feedback survey form — fill it out as many times as you need. Just remember that technical issues or bugs MUST go through a ticket.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? |Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• UMBC Digital Accessibility| Ally FAQs | Ally Demo | Ally Report (VPN required)
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity |Keep On Teaching |Student Technology Resources

Links are everywhere -- in syllabi, announcements, email, assignments, websites, and Blackboard pages. They’re one of the most useful tools for connecting students to resources and one of the most commonly overlooked accessibility issues. For anyone using screen readers, a link is read aloud exactly as it appears: “click here” or “hxxps // web(dot)com/long-string-of-characters” -- this communicates nothing.

Accessible link text is a small fix with a big payoff for everyone. Let’s explore five tips to improve how providing accessible links can make a huge difference to everyone.

1. Make Every Link Self-Describing

Accessible link text should make sense out of context. Screen reader users often navigate a page by jumping from link to link, without reading the surrounding text. That means each link needs to stand on its own.

• Instead of: “To access the library database, click here.”
  Write: “Access the UMBC Library database.”

Why this matters: “click here” provides no context. Telling someone what happens when the link is clicked and where the link will take them helps them know where they're going.

• Instead of: “The reading for this week is available here.”
  Write: “Download this week’s reading: Smith (2022) on urban planning (PDF).”

Why this matters: Providing clear information about the reading, including the author, year, and file format, helps students know exactly what they are accessing when they click the link.

Here’s a useful test for you to try: Read only the text of your links with no surrounding context. Do you know where it leads? If not, then you need to make sure you provide clear descriptions.

2. Avoid These Common Accessibility Pitfalls

A few link habits are so common that they can feel natural, but each one creates a barrier for anyone using assistive technology.

• As we just explored, it’s critical to avoid using “Click here” -- not all users navigate with a mouse, and it tells users nothing about the destination.

• Create unique link text for different destinations -- it’s important not to use the same words for different links (e.g., two different readings both labeled “Weekly reading”).

• Avoid full web page addresses as link text. A full web page address read aloud character-by-character is inaccessible and confusing. Imagine what it sounds like to hear 150+ letters, numbers, and/or symbols read, one by one, because your link has that many characters.

3. Indicate When a Link Opens a File or New Window

Screen reader and keyboard users benefit from knowing what will happen when they click a link, especially if it downloads a file or opens a new tab. Include a brief note in the link text itself.

• “Download the rubric (Word doc)”

• “View the course policy (PDF)”

• “Watch the intro video on YouTube (opens in new tab)”

This helps everyone plan their workflow, not just those using screen readers.

4. Keep Link Text Concise But Complete

Longer isn’t always better. Link text should be long enough to be descriptive, but short enough to be efficient.

• Aim for 4-10 words for most links.

• Skip filler phrases like “please visit” or “feel free to.”

• Don’t link entire paragraphs. Link a meaningful phrase within the sentence instead.

It’s also important to avoid using “Read more” or “Learn more” -- more about what? If you must use these phrases, tell us what we’re reading or learning more about.

5. Check Your Links in Silktide or Ally

Silktide and Ally will evaluate link accessibility. In your Blackboard course or organization, Ally will check Ultra Documents and uploaded files. Silktide will flag very obvious issues (links that just say "click here," for instance), but it won't flag anything else, so you still need to manually evaluate all of your page links.

If your report flags link issues, here’s how to address them:

• In Sites or Blackboard Ultra, edit the content item and update the link text directly in the rich text editor.

• In uploaded Word or PDF files, fix the link text in the original file and re-upload.

• In your syllabus, use Word’s Accessibility Checker (Review → Check Accessibility) to flag link text issues before uploading.

Link accessibility is one of the fastest fixes in your email, website, document, or course -- and it makes a noticeable difference for everyone who depends on clear navigation to find what they need.

Imagine a student learning Spanish who relies on a screen reader to access course materials. They open a PDF of a restaurant menu and instead of hearing the items and prices their classmates are discussing, the screen reader attempts to read the Spanish text using English phonetics, turning “huevos rancheros” into something unrecognizable. The lesson doesn’t just become harder. It becomes inaccessible.

Scenarios like this are why digital accessibility in a language department is more than a compliance checkbox. It’s a pedagogy question. And it’s why the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication (MLLI) at UMBC has become one of the most compelling examples of what it looks like when a department decides to take accessibility seriously, not as a one-time project, but as a sustained commitment.

An Invitation to Look Inward

In 2019, UMBC began using Ally, an accessibility tool built into Blackboard, UMBC’s learning management system, to scan course materials and score them on accessibility. Ally looks at everything instructors upload: PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, images. It flags issues like missing alt text, unreadable scanned documents, and inaccessible table structures, and it gives instructors direct feedback on what to fix and how.

Since Spring 2025, faculty from across the MLLI department engaged with accessibility training in meaningful numbers. More than 30 unique MLLI faculty participated in workshops offered by the Instructional Technology team, ranging from broader campus offerings on creating accessible content to comprehensive accessibility camps.

“Our department has always engaged intentionally with instructional technology because accessibility is central to how we teach languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication.” ~ Dr. Golubeva 

When MLLI Chair Dr. Irina Golubeva invited the team to bring a tailored Digital Accessibility 101 session to the department, it opened a conversation that has continued ever since. The session wasn’t a generic overview. It was built around MLLI’s own data, their actual Ally scores, their specific file types, and their unique challenges. Dr. Golubeva shares in more detail the needs they are addressing: 

“Working across multiple writing systems and alphabets, we are constantly attending to how students encounter content in different forms. The consultation and Ally data helped us connect those long-standing practices with a data-informed approach -- and reinforced our understanding that accessibility is not just a compliance issue, but an indispensable component of inclusive pedagogy.”  ~ Dr. Golubeva

Why Language Courses Present Unique Accessibility Challenges

Most discussions of course accessibility center on standard document issues: missing headings, untagged PDFs, images without descriptions. Those challenges are real in every discipline. But MLLI faces a layer of complexity that few other departments share.

Language courses depend heavily on images as pedagogical tools -- vocabulary flashcards, cultural artifacts, maps of regions where a language is spoken, menus and signs that appear in the target language. For these images, a generic description like “a restaurant menu” is technically compliant but pedagogically useless. A student who cannot see the image doesn’t just need to know what it is; they need to engage with it the way their sighted peers do. That’s the difference between standard accessibility alt text (“a kitchen with a stove, sink, and fridge”) and what the team started calling pedagogical alt text (“a room in a house where meals are cooked, used to identify household nouns”).

Then there’s the language tagging problem. PDFs and Word documents contain metadata that tells screen readers which language to use when reading text aloud. When a document in Russian isn’t tagged as Russian, the screen reader defaults to English phonetics -- mangling the very sounds a student is trying to learn. For a department teaching Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese, and other languages, ensuring the right language tag is set isn’t a technicality. It’s a learning outcome.

“A course task turned into asking students to craft alternative text for images used in some of our courses, taking the image's purpose into account,” said Maria Manni, Spanish Area Coordinator. “The useful, community-engaged purpose of the task -- to students who are learning how to use descriptive language in Spanish -- elevates the experience from boring to meaningful, and it generates a better sense of caring about accuracy.” What started as an accessibility task became a language lesson, and a reminder that the constraints a discipline faces can sometimes point toward authentic pedagogical experience for learners.

What the Data Shows

UMBC uses Ally's institutional data to track accessibility scores across departments and terms. Scores reflect two things: an overall score that blends all course content together, and a files score that looks specifically at uploaded documents and images -- that is, the materials faculty create and curate. Because Blackboard's built-in content creation tools are already designed to be accessible, the files score is a meaningful indicator of faculty effort and, more importantly, of what students actually encounter.

For MLLI, the trend is clear and encouraging. On UMBC's overall accessibility score, the department climbed from 80.7% in Spring 2025 to 86.2% in Spring 2026, meeting the institution's Strive for 85 target. But the more telling story is in the files score, which measures the documents and images most directly in an instructor's hands. That score rose from 52.0% in Spring 2025 to 66.6% in Spring 2026, a 14.6-point gain across 131 active courses serving 2,548 students.

That kind of shift doesn't happen by accident. It's the result of faculty making different choices about how they describe an image, format a document, or tag a file -- one course at a time.

The Work Continues

Progress doesn't mean finished. MLLI's ongoing focus is on two areas that represent the most remaining opportunity: images and PDFs. Images are plentiful in language instruction, and writing meaningful descriptions at the pedagogical level the discipline demands takes thought and time. It's the difference between noting that a menu exists and helping a student engage with it the way everyone else in the room can. PDFs remain the dominant file format in many courses, and ensuring that scanned documents are text-readable and that all files carry the correct language tag continues to be active work.

How can you get involved?

If you’re an instructor curious about your own course’s accessibility score, Ally’s course report is available directly in Blackboard -- look for the Ally Accessibility Report under Books & Course Tools. If your department is interested in a tailored session like the one MLLI received, reach out to the Instructional Technology team to schedule a conversation.

For more information, see the following resources:

• umbc.edu/go/allydemo

• umbc.edu/go/allytraining 

• umbc.edu/go/allyfaqs

• umbc.edu/go/allyreport (requires UMBC VPN to view from off-campus)

• UMBC Digital Accessibility

• USM Digital Accessibility Hub

Accessible math content ensures that all students can fully engage with your course material. Yet mathematical notation remains one of the most common accessibility barriers in STEM courses. The good news is that practical, accessible content creation practices exist, and many of them work directly within tools instructors are likely already using.

Created in collaboration with Mathematics and Statistics faculty, especially Associate Professor Justin Webster; Michael Canale, Assistant Director, Student Disability Services; and DoIT’s Instructional Technology team, UMBC's Accessible Math resource outlines specific tools and workflows to help you create and share accessible mathematical content with Blackboard, Mathpix, Overleaf, and LaTeX. 

Blackboard: Create Accessible Math from the Start

If you are building new course materials and want to ensure accessibility from the beginning, Blackboard Ultra offers several built-in options for creating accessible math content. Add math content wherever you access the rich text editor in your course.

Mathpix: Accessible Handwritten and Printed Math

Not all math content starts as a digital file. Many instructors have handwritten notes, scanned problem sets, or older PDFs. When creating accessible content from scratch is not possible, Mathpix is an AI-powered tool that addresses exactly this challenge. 

Mathpix recognizes handwritten and printed mathematical expressions in images and converts them to LaTeX or MathML — making it particularly useful for digitizing handwritten notes, lecture materials, or older course documents.

LaTeX and Overleaf — Accessible Documents from Source

LaTeX is the standard typesetting system across many STEM disciplines. PDFs compiled from LaTeX may lack the structural tags (headings, reading order, alt text for figures) that assistive technologies rely on. Producing an accessible PDF from LaTeX requires intentional choices about LaTeX packages and compilation settings.

Overleaf is one cloud-based LaTeX editor widely used in STEM fields for creating research papers, problem sets, and course notes. With the right setup, documents authored in Overleaf can be output as tagged, accessible PDFs. If you’re not an Overleaf user, LaTeX can be updated in your LaTeX tool of choice by using available LaTeX resources.

Choosing the Right Approach

Not sure which tool or workflow fits your situation? Here is a quick reference from the Accessible Math support site:

• Create math content, including simple LaTeX, in Blackboard
• Convert handwritten notes to an accessible format
• Convert a PDF with math content to an accessible format
• Create accessible LaTeX content, including complex LaTeX

Get Started Today

Accessible math does not require rebuilding all of your course materials at once. Pick the scenario that matches where you are right now and take one step forward:

• If you use Blackboard: Open the Rich Text Editor in your next course document or assessment and use the Math Editor tool or rich text editor instead of inserting an equation as an image
• If you have handwritten notes: Request Mathpix access and try converting one set of notes to HTML
• If you work in LaTeX: Request Overleaf Premium access and review UMBC's accessible LaTeX template or begin reviewing LaTeX formatting guides for accessible PDFs

Full Resource: UMBC Accessible Math 

The tools, workflows, and video tutorials referenced in this article are available in one place:

Accessible Math — UMBC Faculty Resources

This site includes instructions, video walkthroughs (UMBC sign-in required), links to request access to Mathpix and Overleaf Premium, and additional guidance for each tool covered here. Bookmark it as your go-to reference for accessible math content creation.

Questions about accessibility at UMBC? Visit the UMBC Office of Accessibility and Disability Services website for additional resources and support.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? |Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• UMBC Digital Accessibility| Ally FAQs | Ally Demo | Ally Report (VPN required)
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity |Keep On Teaching |Student Technology Resources

What does digital accessibility look like in practice -- and how can busy faculty make meaningful progress without redesigning their entire course?

Professor Nancy Kusmaul -- outgoing Faculty Senate President and incoming Chair and Associate Dean of the School of Social Work -- offers a perspective grounded in everyday teaching. 

Rather than describing accessibility as an added task, she emphasizes that it often builds on what faculty are already doing. Small adjustments - checking a document or considering how course materials are shared - can make a meaningful difference to students. Her advice to colleagues? Start small and stay consistent.

“The best first step is to just take it a little bit at a time.”

Kusmaul encourages faculty to focus on manageable actions -- reviewing one week’s material, running one accessibility checker, or making incremental changes as the semester progresses. This approach not only reduces feeling overwhelmed, it can build sustainable habits over time. She also underscores an important shift in mindset: accessibility is not about perfection.

“What can you do today to make your content a little bit more accessible than it was yesterday?”

Perhaps most importantly, Kusmaul reminds us why this work matters. Accessible course materials support not only students who request accommodation, it also helps those who may never ask -- removing barriers before they impact learning.

How can you get involved?

If you’re an instructor curious about your course’s accessibility score, Ally’s course report is available directly in Blackboard - look for the Ally Accessibility Report under Books & Course Tools. 

For more information, see the following resources:

• umbc.edu/go/allydemo
• umbc.edu/go/allytraining 
• umbc.edu/go/allyfaqs
• umbc.edu/go/allyreport (requiresUMBC VPN to view from off-campus)
• UMBC Digital Accessibility
• USM Digital Accessibility Hub

As announced last month, UMBC is working toward a campus-wide goal of highly accessible courses by the end of 2026. To help, DoIT recommends that faculty identify accessibility gaps in prior versions of the same course, and make meaningful improvements before the Fall 2026 term begins.

Improve Existing Courses with Ally 

Fall 2026 Blackboard course shells will be available in late July. If you’ve taught a course before, you have a head start. UMBC’s Blackboard Ally tool has already scanned your previous course content and generated accessibility scores. As such, you can:

• Review your Ally Course Accessibility Report to identify which materials need improvement
• Remediate low-scoring content using Ally’s recommendations
• Update your course accessibility score toward UMBC’s “Strive for 85” goal
• Copy improved content into your fresh Fall 2026 course shell

This approach allows you to build on your existing work while creating a more accessible experience for your fall students.

Get Support Along the Way

You don’t have to tackle accessibility alone. UMBC is committed to helping you succeed:

• Attend CoRE Digital Accessibility Summer Camp (June 3 or June 10)
• Enroll in CoRE Foundations training: This flexible, self-paced Blackboard course teaches practical tools for digital accessibility and can even lead to a microcredential recognizing your expertise.
• Review Ally FAQs: Visit umbc.edu/go/allyfaqs for answers to common questions.
• Request a consult with Instructional Technology staff.

Your efforts contribute to UMBC’s institutional goal of achieving an 85% or better Ally score across all courses by the end of 2026.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• UMBC Digital Accessibility| Ally FAQs | Ally Demo | Ally Report (VPN required)
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity |Keep On Teaching |Student Technology Resources

UMBC instructors are invited to "enroll" in the self-paced, online Course Roadmap to Equity (CoRE) Foundations training, which provides practical tools to achieve the ‘Strive for 85’ digital accessibility goal -- an overall Ally course score of 85% or better by the end of 2026. 

In March 2026, UMBC’s Digital Accessibility Steering Committee launched Strive for 85 -- an institutional goal to achieve an overall Ally course accessibility score of 85% or better across all Blackboard courses by the end of 2026. This initiative represents a commitment to digital accessibility and inclusive excellence in course design. CoRE Foundations gives instructors practical tools to apply accessibility improvements in their own courses to make progress toward that goal.

How it Works

CoRE Foundations is flexible and self-paced. Begin with Module 1 (Strive for 85), then choose additional modules based on the type of content you teach. You can also earn an optional microcredential, recognizing your expertise in implementing digital accessibility best practices.

Getting Started

CoRE Foundations is available now on Blackboard. Instructors may self-enroll in CoRE Foundations to get started today. Department chairs may submit an RT request to have Instructional Technology enroll their faculty.

Join UMBC's campus-wide commitment to inclusive excellence!

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow theInstructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• UMBC Digital Accessibility| Ally FAQs | Ally Demo | Ally Report (VPN required)
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity |Keep On Teaching |Student Technology Resources

The April issue of the USM Digital Accessibility Newsletter is now available. Here's what's inside:

• Why Planning Beyond the Deadline Matters

• Quick Fix Guide: Your Complete Accessibility Reference Library

• Tools & Tactics: Accessibility Automation and Efficiency

• Campuses in Focus: Accessibility Champions in Action

• Looking Ahead: Your Accessibility Roadmap for Next Semester and Beyond

• Learn More

Review past issues of the newsletter. To receive the newsletter each month, please subscribe with USM.

Following Provost van Dulmen's November 2025 announcement regarding UMBC's commitment to digital accessibility, the Digital Accessibility Steering Committee (DASC) is launching "Strive for 85." This institutional goal calls for all Blackboard courses to achieve an Ally "Overall" accessibility score of 85% or better across all colleges and departments by the end of 2026.

As of the most recently completed Fall 25 semester, the campus's overall Ally score for Blackboard courses (which make up ~90% of all UMBC courses) is approximately 74%. To help faculty close this gap and reach the "Strive for 85" goal, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has prepared a voluntary, self-paced Blackboard training organization called "Course Roadmap to Equity" (CoRE) that complements and incorporates existing Ally FAQs, live workshops, and drop-in consulting. 

Among other things, the CoRE Blackboard training focuses on practical faculty objectives:

1. KNOW how to find a Bb course's Ally "Overall" score and what it means.
2. UNDERSTAND why content may be "low scoring" and its impact on student equity.
3. ACT by reducing remaking, or remediating inaccessible Blackboard content.
4. REQUEST an Equally Effective Alternative Access Program (EEAAP) exception (forthcoming).
5. COMPARE your new Ally "Overall" score to the "Strive for 85" UMBC goal.

In addition to the self-paced Blackboard resource, the Provost and DASC are working with Deans and Department Chairs to identify Digital Accessibility (DA) "Peer Mentors" who will provide on-the-ground help and support to their colleagues across campus. 

Finally, to give everyone a bird's eye view of UMBC's "Strive for 85" progress, anyone with a UMBC account can visit umbc.edu/go/allyreport (UMBC VPN required for off-campus viewing). 

"Ally is a reasonable, widely-used, and effective proxy for achieving new digital accessibility legal requirements that go into effect on April 24, 2026," says DASC Co-chair Tanyka M. Barber, Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of the of the Division of Institutional Equity. 

"By then," adds Barber's co-Chair, Jack Suess, Vice President of IT, "our Spring 26 term will be nearly completed, but we already start from a position of strength. Blackboard itself has identified UMBC's Ally overall score to be higher than other peer 4-year public university clients across North America."

For more information, see the following resources:

• umbc.edu/go/allydemo
• umbc.edu/go/allytraining 
• umbc.edu/go/allyfaqs
• umbc.edu/go/allyreport (requires UMBC VPN to view from off-campus)
• UMBC Digital Accessibility
• USM Digital Accessibility Hub

The March issue of the USM Digital Accessibility Newsletter is now available. Here's what's inside:

• Why Sprinting to the Finish Matters

• Quick Fix Guide: Sprint to the Finish Checklist

• Tools & Tactics: Your Accessibility Workflow Toolkit

• Campuses in Focus: Building the Evidence Base for Accessibility Impact

• Your Monthly Move: Remediate Your Remaining Content

• Share Your Accessibility Wins

• Learn More

• Register for our Zoom Monthly Remediation Sprints

Review past issues of the newsletter.To receive the newsletter each month, please subscribe with USM.