July 26, 2019 marks the 29th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act that was signed into law in 1990.  The ADA and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) give civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The ADA and ADAAA also assure equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities for access to businesses, employment, transportation, state and local government programs and services, and telecommunications.

Nearly 57 million people in our country have a disability and nearly 25% of today’s 20 year olds will experience disability in their lifetime. Since 1991, the 10 regional ADA Centers have been established as a support to creating more inclusive and accessible environments by providing  accurate information, resources and training on the ADA to businesses, employers, state and local governments, people with disabilities and their families, advocates, and veterans across the United States.

Similarly, UMBC's Office of Accessibility and Disability Services provides technical support and accommodation processes as a support to equal opportunity for the entire UMBC community - beyond Student Disability Services, working in partnership with all campus departments and divisions, including Human Resources, Facilities Management and DoIT.  Through the application of the law and related guidance throughout UMBC, people with disabilities have better access to buildings, classrooms, employment, programs and services, and increasing opportunities for equal and full participation in campus and community life.  Equal access and equal opportunity benefit the whole community.

If you are looking for a way to honor this occasion at UMBC, sign up to attend Instructional Technology's Blackboard Ultra Ally Orientation on August 23rd at noon from the very accessible location of your own computer!  Details are here: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/instructional-technology/events/71615  We are thankful that Instructional Technology is a champion of ADA by orienting faculty in the provision of accessible course content.

If you are looking for ways to celebrate the ADA in your daily life, or through social media, click on the link below for ideas and inspiration.

Happy Anniversary ADA!

Bach in Baltimore warmly seeks experienced singers in all voice parts to perform with us in our 2019-2020 Season! The Bach in Baltimore Choir is a friendly group of talented singers who enjoy singing great choral music together.

For our 2019-202 Season, Bach in Baltimore will be performing some of the GREATEST Chorale Masterpieces ever composed, including:

Bach’s B Minor Mass
Handel’s Messiah
Haydn’s Heiligemesse

And, Bach in Baltimore will continue to be the only ensemble in central Maryland presenting Bach’s cantatas with great regularity.

Organization Description:

This morning from approximately 8:40am to 9:10am there was an issue with our authentication system that disrupted logins to all web-based services such as myUMBC, email, Blackboard and RT among others. The issue was quickly identified by our staff and corrected as of 9:10am. We have taken steps to augment our monitoring systems so that this type of outage will be flagged by our systems in the future. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at damian@umbc.edu

Damian

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Damian Doyle

Assistant Vice President 

DoIT - UMBC