DA Steering Committee Launches 'Strive for 85' Ally Course Accessibility Goal
To help, DoIT opens self-paced Blackboard training site
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:
- KNOW how to find a Bb course's Ally "Overall" score and what it means.
- UNDERSTAND why content may be "low scoring" and its impact on student equity.
- ACT by reducing remaking, or remediating inaccessible Blackboard content.
- REQUEST an Equally Effective Alternative Access Program (EEAAP) exception (forthcoming).
- 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:
Posted: March 12, 2026, 1:21 PM
