Brought to you by the USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and the
USM Digital Accessibility Work Group
The Title II compliance timeline has changed, but the work remains urgent. This month, we’re focusing on how to use the additional time well: building faculty leadership, strengthening discipline-specific support, and taking small, practical steps toward more accessible digital materials.
The U.S. Department of Justice has extended the Title II web and mobile app accessibility compliance deadline to April 26, 2027. This extension gives us additional time to thoughtfully integrate accessibility more intentionally into our courses, programs, services, and digital content. It does not change the importance of the work. Across USM, faculty and staff have already made meaningful progress, and this additional time gives us an opportunity to strengthen sustainable practices that benefit all learners. Let’s use this window strategically to build accessibility into the way we work.
We’re excited to announce a Call for Faculty Co-Leads for our new USM Communities of Practice (CoP) focused on Digital Accessibility in STEM and Music & Arts disciplines.
Why these disciplines?
STEM and Music & Arts present unique accessibility challenges that require specialized knowledge and creative solutions:
STEM: Mathematical equations, scientific notation, data visualizations, lab simulations, and interactive models all require thoughtful approaches to ensure students using assistive technology can fully engage with content.
Music & Arts: Musical notation, audio recordings, performance-based assessments, visual art analysis, and studio/performance spaces demand innovative accessibility strategies that honor the integrity of artistic expression.
What Co-Leads will do:
Facilitate monthly discussions with faculty facing similar challenges
Share discipline-specific resources and solutions
Collaborate with the Kirwan Center and the USM Digital Accessibility Work Group to develop practical guidance and meaningful solutions
Help shape training and support that actually works for your field
Who we’re looking for:
Faculty leaders who are passionate about accessibility, curious about solutions, and willing to learn alongside colleagues. You don’t need to be an expert—just committed to making your discipline more inclusive.
Interested? Applications are due this Friday, June 5, 2026.
This month, choose one item you created (a document, webpage, email, slide deck, or course module) and spend five minutes navigating it using only your keyboard. Can you reach every link, button, menu, and form field? Is the focus order logical? Can you tell where you are on the page?
It’s easier to improve our materials when we better understand what doesn’t work well.
Whether you’re ready to lead, want to share an accessibility success story, or are looking for practical guidance, we want to hear from you.
Apply to be a Faculty Co-Lead.
Share or Nominate an Accessibility Win.
Visit the USM Digital Accessibility Hub.
]]>Congratulations to the Division of Information Technology's student employees who will be graduating this week! Your contributions to our Networks, Communications, AV Services, Analytics, Cybersecurity, Systems, Project Management, Technology Support Center, New Media Studio, High Performance Computing, Desktop, and Business systems teams have improved UMBC's technology experience. We are proud of your accomplishments and look forward to hearing about your future successes!
Jermaine Agboka
Aisosa Aimufua
Alina Aler
Sydnee Angus
Beamlak Bekele
Soumya Bhate
Sean Chalungsooth
James Cheng
Jowan Cook
Willis Crobsy
Ouwen Dai
Holland Davis
Aliza Garrison
Carter Gerhardt
Ben Guest
Suhas Honnegowda
James Hyatt
Rithik Kavanakudy
Wardan Kazzallabach
Adrian Mohepath
Yazlin Moujalled
DT Nguyen
Vy Ngyuen
Coco Ni
Daeun Oh
Timi Olayinka
Kellee Palmer
William Portillo
Grace Robinson
Aakriti Roka
Kidus Solomon
Ryan Walton
Steven Zhang
Joyce Zheng
]]>In March, we published the "Launching UMBC’s Sonography Program Application" article, recognizing some of the hard work that went into integrating UMBC’s Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program (DMSP) and building a functioning application for prospective students. These efforts were invaluable and gave many professional teams a chance to shine. Additionally, the application and its relevant technical work were only one side of the coin. Efforts towards bringing the DMSP home stretched much deeper and encompassed more groups than could fit into a single highlight. One of these groups was Instructional Technology and their work and support of Sonography instructors during the course migration from Moodle to Blackboard.
Prior to the move, UMBC’s Sonography Program had utilized Moodle as its learning management system (LMS) to support in-person courses with an online component. However, the Moodle contract was set to expire in November of 2024, creating a problem in need of immediate addressing. The solution was clear: migrate the program's courses to Blackboard Ultra, UMBC’s own learning management system. However, only one of the instructors ad previous experience teaching with Blackboard, which meant this was an entirely new experience for the majority of instructors. As such, this process was not a simple technology migration, but an ongoing effort of training and supporting instructors on the part of Instructional Technology.
The initiative began in February 2024, when LaMar Davis, Senior Director of the Institute of eXtended Learning (Often shortened and referred to as IXL), reached out to the Instructional Technology team to explain the situation. While ties with Moodle would not be cut until November, the 13.5-month-long Sonography program actually starts in July, making mid-summer an optimal early deadline, if possible. This proactivity on the part of LaMar aimed to avoid having pressure on instructors when the time to switch from Moodle came. The core task would be to help them learn how to use Blackboard in the same way they designed and taught in Moodle. This training includes all functions, such as course content uploads, grading, assignments, announcements, and engagement. The instructors were very much students themselves in this situation, relying on training sessions and one-on-one support to ensure they were ready and confident to use Blackboard effectively.
The core figures from Instructional Technology involved in the effort were Dr. Mariann Hawken, Dr. Susan Biro, Dr. Ben Amudzi, and Dr. Josh Abrams, each offering vital contributions to planning, technical administration, and Blackboard training. The process included breaking down Bb training into small, comprehensible pieces for the instructors as the teams were getting an idea of the course content transfer process from Moodle to Blackboard. Ben and Josh led early reviews of syllabi and key topics as the structure for the training took shape. As the process unfolded, Ben also took initiative in organizing Blackboard resources and providing ongoing follow-up and support. The training was delivered through a series of workshops, where knowledge was gradually built up for the instructors. Items such as third-party tools, core Blackboard functionality, and creatable components were addressed throughout. ‘Sandbox’ courses were used as instructors acclimated to Blackboard and practiced different skills, offering a clean environment to do so. Ensuring that the instructors were comfortable and not overwhelmed by the flow of information was at the forefront of the team’s priorities, especially when it came time to build courses in Blackboard, with the same going for establishing ongoing support..
A difficult portion of the project pertained to the course creation and enrollment process for non-credit courses, which the Sonography program’s 13.5-month certificate falls under. As support for instructors' transition continued, there was a misalignment in back-end processes due to these factors. The unique course situation with non-credit courses does not align with UMBC’s automated systems for traditional credit 15-week, two-semester academic calendar. This resulted in critical collaboration among Instructional Technology, the Sonography Program coordinator, and other technical teams in DoIT to manually create processes to support Sonography course creation and student enrollments. In particular, this collaboration established a special term code for the timeframe of the Sonography project, which is unique at the institution.
The work, support, and new challenges continue, but these efforts have helped the Sonography Program find itself in an excellent spot. All of this work currently involves many of the technical efforts highlighted in the previous article, with the move of the DMSP truly being an all-encompassing effort. As was the case before, much of the success in this continuous initiative would not have been possible without the work of the talented professionals in Instructional Technology.
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