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 web content ensures that all users, including those using screen readers, keyboard navigation, or assistive technology, can interact with your website and digital content. At UMBC, this applies to both Sites@UMBC, myUMBC groups, and other platforms that present course, departmental, or university information.

Accessibility isn't just a legal requirement—it's part of inclusive, student-centered design. This article provides easy-to-follow guidance grounded in WCAG 2.1 standards and the POUR principles:

• Perceivable: Everyone can perceive the content (e.g., text descriptions for images).
• Operable: Everyone can navigate the site (e.g., keyboard-friendly menus).
• Understandable: Everyone can comprehend the information (e.g., clear instructions and consistent layout).
• Robust: Everyone can use the site across different devices and technologies (e.g., follow HTML standards and semantic markup).

Common Accessibility Issues

Even with accessible templates, website editors must ensure that their content meets accessibility standards. Below are common content types and how to improve them.

1. Content & Headings

• Use heading levels in order — don't skip levels.
• Use headings to organize content for both sighted users and screen readers.
• Don't simulate headers by resizing or bolding text.
• Quick Win: Start pages with a clear <h1> and use <h2> for major sections.

2. Color & Contrast

• Don't rely on color alone to convey meaning (e.g., "Items in red are overdue").
• Ensure text contrast is at least 4.5:1 for body text.
• Use tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker.
• Quick Win: Check your headings and buttons for contrast with the background. Review this handy guide to UMBC Brand Color Contrast combinations.

3. Descriptive Links

• Use meaningful link text (e.g., "View our schedule" instead of "Click here").
• Avoid duplicate links with the same text that go to different places.
• Indicate when a link opens a new window or downloads a file.
• Quick Win: Hover over your links and ask yourself, do they make sense out of context?

4. Tables

• Use tables only for data, not for layout.
• Never use images of tables, instead use the tables themselves to display data.
• Ensure tables read logically when linearized by screen readers.
• Include row and column headers with <th> tags.
• Quick Win: Instead of a table, consider if you can present the same information in a list format!  Lists are easier for a screen reader to accurately present information for.

5. Images

• Images must have descriptions, even thumbnails and inline visuals. Not sure whether an image needs a description or if it should be marked decorative? Try this decision tree.
• Avoid using text inside images since screen readers cannot interpret them.
• Complex images (e.g., infographics, charts) should include a longer description or linked text alternative.
• Quick Win: Ask yourself, "What would I say if I were describing this image out loud?"

How to add descriptions to images in Sites@UMBC:

• Option 1: Edit the page → click image → pencil icon → add alt text → update.
• Option 2: Go to Media → Library → select image → add description.
• Click here for the wiki walkthrough of adding alt text on Sites.

6. Audio & Video

• All videos must include captions.
• Audio content should have transcripts.
• Avoid autoplay media or provide controls to stop it
• Quick Win: Use our video capture platform's auto-caption feature, then edit for accuracy. 

7.  Navigation & Keyboard Access

• Include a "Skip to Main Content" link at the top of each page.
• Ensure all interactive elements are accessible using the keyboard only.
• Avoid hover-only content (e.g., tooltips or dropdowns that don't work with keyboard focus).
• Quick Win: Try navigating your site using only the tab key.

8. Forms & Feedback

• Label all form fields clearly.
• Provide instructions for completing the form (e.g., required fields).
• Avoid placeholder-only labels — use actual visible labels.
• Quick Win: Use the preview mode and test your form with a screen reader.

Creating accessible web content is an ongoing journey that starts with these foundational steps. By applying the POUR principles to your daily work, you help make UMBC's digital landscape more robust and user-friendly for everyone. Let's continue to work together to keep our digital doors open to every member of our community.

Learn more about UMBC's website Digital Accessibility Remediation Project here!

SPIE aims to connect the community through anything related to light (computer screens, lasers, astronomy, etc). You are qualified if that sounds fun or intersting to you. Join our executive board by filling out this google form. Please make submissions by: 5/19.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl stands as a transformative figure in contemporary American Judaism, redefining the boundaries of Jewish identity and leadership. Born in South Korea to a Jewish American father and a Korean Buddhist mother, she made history as the first Asian American to be ordained as both a rabbi and a cantor. Her dual investiture and subsequent leadership as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City represent a landmark shift in the visibility of diverse Jewish experiences.

Buchdahl’s impact on Jewish American heritage is rooted in her embodiment of the "changing face of Judaism." In a community often perceived through an Ashkenazi-centric lens, her presence challenges traditional assumptions about what a Jewish leader looks like. She has utilized her platform to champion radical hospitality and inclusivity, arguing that the Jewish future depends on embracing a multicultural reality. Her soulful leadership, which blends liturgical music with intellectual depth, has revitalized one of the nation’s oldest congregations and inspired a global audience through digital outreach.

Furthermore, Buchdahl’s influence extends into the broader American cultural fabric. By navigating the complexities of being "both/and"—fully Korean and fully Jewish—she provides a model for navigating intersectional identities in the 21st century. Her story is a testament to the evolving nature of American pluralism, illustrating that heritage is not a static relic of the past but a dynamic, inclusive tapestry. Rabbi Buchdahl’s legacy is one of opening doors, ensuring that Jewish American heritage is recognized as a diverse, vibrant, and ever-expanding narrative.

Just a quick reminder that anyone who is renting during this spring semester also has their plots for the summer! The board is not monitoring the garden during that time, and facilities will be mowing around the garden almost every week, so please make sure all rules are being followed and to not make it harder for facilities to do their job! 

Please join us this Wednesday, May 13th at 5:00pm in The Gathering Space (CWB 103) for our End Of Year Sending & Celebration. This is a chance to celebrate our graduates and all of the important work and community build over this past year. Food will be served!

If you are a graduating student, please fill out this form to be reconized.

The Gathering Space will continue with standard hours until Thursday, May 21st at 8:00pm when the space will close for the summer. Look out for additional information about staff availability and campus prayer, mindfulness, and meditation spaces.

Good luck as we enter finals season! 

Save the date for the Fall 2026 English Department Alumni Panel! The event will be held Wednesday, September 23 from 12:00-1:00 PM in PAHB 132.  We will hear from three alumni about life after UMBC and finding a job in a difficult market. Read more about the panel speakers below.

• Michael Fialkowski (Technical Writing and Editing): "Editing in the Current Technology Landscape: A View from Capital Hill"
• Emily Grace (Literature and Doctoral Studies): "Cobbling Together a Career in Academia:
  Researching Toni Morrison's Music, Teaching Composition, and Editing a Literary Magazine"
• Caroline Koutsos (Social Change Communications): "The Strategy Behind Storytelling: Reaching Target Audiences to Drive Change"

Temporary Private room available for Summer 2026 in a 2BHK townhouse for a male at Westland Gardens for a 3-month move-in. 


Perfect for interns, students living on campus whose apartments will be closed, or anyone looking for temporary housing.

Fully furnished 2BHK townhouse:

What you get:

• Spacious living room with sofa + TV. 
• Fully equipped kitchen (Oven, Microwave, Fridge, Dishwasher). 
  In-unit Washer & Dryer.
• Central heating & cooling. 
• Just a 1-minute walk to the UMBC bus stop. 
• Only 10 minutes walk to campus.
• Availability: May 25th - Aug 15th. 
• Rent is just 600$ only. 

DM for more information: +1-202-937-5716 or email me at IO95979@umbc.edu

When Chinonso Ezeobi decided to pack up his life and come to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at UMBC, he was thrilled at the prospect of finding a program that would bring him fulfillment. However, financial struggles and the impact of COVID pandemic quickly threatened Ezeobi’s plans for the future. Never one to be derailed, he found mentors across campus who made it their mission to keep him on the path to his Ph.D. Ezeobi recognized how invaluable their support was and found his own ways to give back to the place and people who gave him so much, including founding two organizations on campus and keeping his door open to any students who may be struggling. 

Q: What brought you to the United States and to UMBC to earn your doctorate?    

A: After earning my bachelor’s degree in Nigeria, I went into the telecommunications industry for about 15 years. Then I went to graduate school in Finland with the hope of completing my Ph.D. to qualify me to be a teacher, as I believed that I would impact people more by becoming a teacher. But, none of the Ph.D. programs I was interested in in Finland could give me full funding.

As part of my search for fully funded Ph.D. programs, my wife and I visited the United States in 2018 and had the opportunity to come to UMBC. I had a meeting with the chair of the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE). After that, my wife and I ate lunch in The Commons. There was a Nigerian flag hanging from the ceiling. When I saw it, I thought, “Oh, my people are represented here.” I applied for several Ph.D. programs and was offered admission to UMBC. Seeing the Nigerian flag that day played a big part in choosing UMBC for my doctoral study.

Q: What is your most meaningful memory from your time at UMBC?

A: When I came to UMBC, I actually didn’t have funding in my very first semester. So I struggled. I paid out of pocket from my savings. I discovered this wasn’t sustainable. At the end of my first semester, I had made up my mind to leave UMBC and transfer to a different university I had been admitted to because I still couldn’t get funding, and I couldn’t afford to pay anymore. I was stressed; I was anxious; I was depressed. I went to the inaugural meeting of the Black Graduate Student Organization. There were about 15 students in attendance as well as [President Emeritus] Freeman A. Hrabowski and [Dean Emerita of Graduate Studies] Janet Rutledge. Dr. Hrabowski and Dr. Rutledge went around the table and asked each student to share how we were faring and what our experiences at UMBC had been like. I told them it wasn’t easy. And the president directed me to work with Dr. Rutledge to sort my situation out. I and Dr. Rutledge had several one-on-one meetings afterwards where she helped me to navigate my challenges at UMBC. When I reached out to Dr. Rutledge the week I wanted to leave UMBC, she asked me to give her one more week to figure out how to fund me. That was what changed everything. I was able to get the support I needed, and the rest, they say, is history.

Q: How have you navigated and overcome the challenges you’ve faced during your time at UMBC?

A: I faced a lot of challenges in my time at UMBC. I was coming in from industry, and I had not been in school for a long time. I was trying to acclimatize. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in my second semester, and everybody was at home. It was so devastating for me as someone who loves to interact with other people in person. I had left a good job to come to graduate school, and I started to wonder, “Did I do the right thing?”

The kind of research I was doing in my previous lab was difficult to adjust, and I needed a little more help, but because everything was virtual it wasn’t easy to get the kind of help I needed. The lab was able to fund me for a semester, but unfortunately, the day my wife arrived in the United States they informed me that they couldn’t support me any longer. So now my wife had joined me but I had no source of income and funding for my Ph.D. program. The graduate program director of CSEE department offered me a grader position without tuition remission, which I accepted. 

Then I got an email from Dr. Robin Cresiski asking if I was available to work with her in the Graduate School based on Dr. Rutledge’s recommendation. She was able to give me a position that could pay for my tuition and still allow me to work in the CSEE department. That was how my relationship with Dr. Cresiski started. She and the Graduate School have always been there for me.

The challenges with my research were similarly massive. Because my lab didn’t have funding, it was very self-driven research. My mentor, Dr. Anthony Johnson, was skeptical about the novelty of my research in the beginning since the ZBLAN sample [a fiber optics slab sample] I used had been around for a long time. Not only did I have to search for and obtain the samples and materials I needed, but I had to convince him that my research was worth it. I went the extra mile to go to the company where I got my samples (Thorlabs) and pulled them into a meeting with Dr. Johnson and I discussed my approach and possible outcome. The meeting highlighted the novelty of my approach to the ZBLAN material and that was how he came on board. 

Once I navigated through one challenge, another one came in. But at the end of the day—it was worth it. I was able to pull through all of those challenges. I was also able to transition from being an international student to having a green card through self-petition and self-advocacy, so I’m able to graduate without the additional pressure of thinking about my visa status while looking for jobs. My faith and the community at UMBC were essential in navigating through all challenges. The motivation was that I had a community of people who wanted my success, people who I felt would advocate for me even when I’m not in the room. 

I wouldn’t change my UMBC experience for anything. The struggles I’ve faced have been very, very challenging, but I’m glad I went through them. It has made me a better person. It has prepared me for the next phase of my life, which will be teaching. And when you’re teaching students, you teach with context of all of the challenges you have been through to try to make sure that the students have a good experience.

Q: How have your experiences engaging and organizing within UMBC’s graduate student community enhanced your journey here?

A: I know a lot of people on campus. When other graduate students have serious issues, they will come to me and share their challenges. I have ideas of who they can talk to and am able to connect them with people who can help. I follow through with whatever issues students are having and make sure they are solved. Some of the students will even request that I sit in meetings with them and help them navigate the conversation! Because of my advocacy and engagement work, I was also nominated to serve on a lot of committees, including a Student Emergency Fund disbursement committee that supports students when they experience financial hardships and need support with groceries. It’s been a good opportunity to get to know more people, and I’m glad that we’re able to make UMBC a better place.

I also have helped in organizing most of the Graduate School’s events through PROMISE. I make sure that I advertise the events in such a way that we bring graduate students together. After the COVID lockdowns ended, I helped improve turn-out at our in-person events. Many international graduate students like myself feel like when they come here, they want to be the best in everything: best in their class, best in their research. There’s nothing wrong with that, but what happens is that they end up not living. They don’t experience the school. Based on my experiences, I have seen that those who advance more in life are those who know people who can mention their names when they’re not in the room. One of the events we organize in the Graduate School is to help students understand how to access the resources on campus before they need it in order to enhance their experience at UMBC. We organize events as simple as a coffee hour with graduate students, where students can come and talk about their classes. It helps them to destress and creates an opportunity for them to see graduate students from other departments.

Doing all of this gives me fulfillment. It’s the same reason that I want to be a teacher: Whenever I help students solve their problems, I feel good about it. I feel that the struggles I have experienced throughout my UMBC journey have given me this capacity to help others.

Q: As an aspiring educator, what teaching practices from your time as a UMBC student do you want to carry forward?

A: Several of my UMBC professors, including Dr. Johnson, Dr. Fow-Sen Choa, and Dr. Gary Carter, have exemplified what it means to be a teacher. They make sure that every student is heard and seen. They assign amazing class projects. And they’re very responsive to email, even when I reach out to them late at night. I don’t think I’ve ever sent an email that they didn’t get back to almost immediately.

I also took some trainings with UMBC’s Center for Research, Teaching, and Learning on how to be a better teacher, on how to engage students and support active learning. I would highly recommend that UMBC graduate students who are aspiring faculty take this training in teaching, because earning a Ph.D. or being a good researcher does not automatically make one a good teacher. 

In the course of my study here, I have also had the opportunity to participate in the UMBC Summer Enrichment Academy as an instructor and as a mentor to other instructors. I’ve been able to connect with high school students, teach them optics, try to help them be interested in engineering, and it has been fulfilling. 

I’m hoping to get a faculty position and eventually a tenure track position around here after I graduate. I believe that having a bigger stage will present a bigger challenge, and will result to a bigger impact.

Written by Tess McRae ’22, Assistant Director for Connective Learning, Center for Democracy and Civic Life