USM Digital Accessibility Spring Cleaning

Join Us for Spring Cleaning Days: January 8-9, 2026!

Start the spring semester strong by ensuring that course materials, workplace documents, and student organization content are accessible to all learners, colleagues, and peers. The USM Digital Accessibility Spring Cleaning event offers faculty, staff, students, and administrators across all 12 USM institutions and 3 Regional Higher Education Centers (RHECs) dedicated time, resources, and support to assess and remediate digital content. As a System, we can move the needle toward meeting the new Title II requirements for digital accessibility, which can be distilled into six essential steps.

Event Overview

When: Thursday, January 8 - Friday, January 9, 2026

Who should participate: Faculty preparing spring courses, staff managing shared resources, student organization leaders getting their spring recruiting materials ready, and anyone else creating digital content associated with our institutions.

Format: Asynchronous learning opportunities, system-wide synchronous sessions, and campus-specific events

Why Participate?

• Prepare for Spring: Get your content ready before the semester begins!
• Clean Up Files: Apply accessibility principles to courses in the LMS, content in shared drives, presentations, templates, reports, and other shared documents
• Learn Practical Skills: Gain hands-on experience with accessibility tools and techniques
• Connect with Colleagues: Share strategies and solutions with peers across USM
• Meet Compliance Goals: Work toward meeting the April 24, 2026, Title II digital accessibility requirements in a supportive environment

Event Schedule

System-Wide Events (Open to all USM faculty and staff)

10:00 AM-10:45 AM | Let's Get Cleaning!

Welcome and Overview of the Importance of Digital Accessibility

Hosted by USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation

Featuring guest speakers from USM faculty, staff, and student leadership

📍 Zoom | Register Now

11:00 AM-12:00 PM | Digital Accessibility 101

Are you new to the Digital Accessibility conversation? We will provide an overview and answer questions to help you get started!

Hosted by USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation

📍 Zoom | Register Now

11:00 AM-2:00 PM | Drop-In Office Hours

Get personalized support for your accessibility questions.

📍 Zoom | Drop-in (no registration required)

3:00 PM-4:00 PM | Digital Accessibility in STEM: Practical Fixes for Spring

Hosted by USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation

Guest presenter: Dr. Sarah Bass, Associate Teaching Professor of Introductory, Analytical and Instrumental Chemistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

📍 Zoom | Register Now

3:00 PM-4:00 PM | Digital Accessibility in Fine Arts and Music: Practical Fixes for Spring

Hosted by USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation

Guest presenter: Dr. Rhoda Bernard, Founding Managing Director, Institute for Accessible Arts Education and Assistant Chair, Music Education Department at Berklee College of Music

📍 Zoom | Register Now

4:15 PM-5:00 PM | Rethinking PDFs: The Accessibility Shortcut You Need

We have become accustomed to saving and sharing PDF files, but it's often not the best practice for accessibility. This session focuses on alternatives to using PDFs to immediately improve your course materials with accessibility in mind.

Hosted by USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation

Guest presenter: TBA

📍 Zoom | Register Now

Friday, January 9

12:00 PM-1:30 PM | Sparkle On: From Spring Cleaning to Year-Round Shine

Hosted by USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation

Celebrating successes and sharing strategies for maintaining accessible course materials

Featuring guest speakers sharing their success stories

📍 Zoom | Register Now

1:30 PM-3:30 PM | Drop-In Office Hours

Get personalized support for your accessibility questions

📍 Zoom | Drop-in (no registration required)

Campus-Specific Events

Additional Campus Events

Many campuses are hosting their own in-person and virtual Spring Cleaning sessions. Check with your campus Center for Teaching and Learning for local opportunities.

Bowie State University

Details will be posted soon!

Coppin State University

Details will be posted soon!

Frostburg State University

Thursday, January 8:

• 11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Accessibility Made Easy: Declutter with TidyUp & Fix Accessibility Issues with UDOIT
• 1:00 PM-1:30 PM: Convert PDFs or Word Docs to Canvas Pages for Easy Editing
• 1:30 PM-4:00 PM: Bring Your Goals: Faculty Work Session with Real-Time Support in TEAMS

Friday, January 9:

• 9:00 AM-11:15 AM: Bring Your Goals: Faculty Work Session with Real-Time Support in TEAMS
• 11:30 AM-11:45 AM: Accessibility in Action: An FSU Success Story

Salisbury University

Thursday, January 8: Virtual Webinars

• 9:00 AM-10:00 AM: Starting with the Syllabus
• 12:00-1:00 PM: Rethinking PDFs
• 1:30 PM-2:30 PM: How to make a PowerPoint digitally accessible

Friday, January 9: Virtual Webinars

• 9:00-10:00 AM: Our Students: Exploring the Why
• 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Rethinking PDFs
• 1:30 PM-2:30 PM: Starting with the Syllabus
• 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Top 5 LMS Issues (including proper setup of assessments for accommodations)

*Events open to SU, UMES, & Wor-Wic Community College Faculty & Staff

Note: At Salisbury University, the following week (January 12-16) will consist of pop-up digital accessibility office hours within different academic buildings for one-on-one support and questions.

Towson University

Thursday, January 8 (In-Person, Open to TU faculty):

• 12:00 PM: Speaking to the Why - ADS (Lunch provided). Register
• 12:20 PM-12:40 PM: Syllabus Jam: Creating an accessible syllabus
• 12:40 PM-1:00 PM: Blackboard Spring Cleaning Tips
• 1:00-2:00 PM: Six Essential Steps Stations

Friday, January 9:

• 9:30 AM-10:30 AM: Designing Accessible Presentations (TU faculty Registration)
• 10:30 AM-11:00 AM: Library permalinks/and publisher PDFs (TU faculty Registration)
• 11:00 AM-11:45 AM: Faculty Accessible PDF Workflow (with CHP Professor and Digital Accessibility Champion Wendy Whitner) (TU faculty Registration)

University of Baltimore

Thursday, January 8:

• Noon-2:00 PM: Drop-In Virtual Office Hours (limited to UBalt users)

Friday, January 9:

• 10:00 AM-Noon: Drop-In Virtual Office Hours (limited to UBalt users)

University of Maryland, Baltimore

Details will be posted soon!

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Thursday, January 8:

• 12:00 PM: Ally Fix Your Content Mini Workshop (open to anyone)
• 2:00 PM: Virtual Drop-in Support (limited to UMBC users)

Friday, January 9:

• 9:30 AM-3:30 PM: Digital Accessibility Virtual Winter Camp (limited to UMBC users)

University of Maryland, College Park

Thursday, January 8:

• 10:30 AM-11:45 AM: Six Essential Steps for Digital Accessibility workshop
• 2:00 PM-3:00 PM: ELMS-Canvas Accessibility Tools workshop

Friday, January 9:

• 9:00 AM-12:00 PM: Digital accessibility retreat followed by 12:00-1:00 PM digital accessibility office hour for drop-in help
• 10:00 AM-11:15 AM: Six Essential Steps for Digital Accessibility workshop
• 2:00 PM-3:00 PM: Overview of the Ally ELMS-Canvas Accessibility Tool workshop

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Thursday, January 8: Virtual Webinars

• 9:00 AM-10:00 AM: Starting with the Syllabus
• 12:00-1:00 PM: Rethinking PDFs
• 1:30 PM-2:30 PM: How to make a PowerPoint digitally accessible

Friday, January 9: Virtual Webinars

• 9:00-10:00 AM: Our Students: Exploring the Why
• 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Rethinking PDFs
• 1:30 PM-2:30 PM: Starting with the Syllabus
• 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Top 5 LMS Issues (including proper setup of assessments for accommodations)

*Events open to SU, UMES, & Wor-Wic Community College Faculty & Staff

University of Maryland Global Campus

Details will be posted soon!

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Details will be posted soon!

Asynchronous Resources: Your Self-Paced Spring Cleaning Guide

Can't attend live sessions? Follow our step-by-step guide to clean up your course content on your own schedule!

Event Sponsors

This system-wide initiative is brought to you by:

• USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation (KCAI)
• Council for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL)
• USM Digital Accessibility Work Group (DAWG)
• USM Campus Centers for Teaching and Learning

Questions?

Contact cai@usmd.edu or visit the USM Digital Accessibility Hub for more information.