In a world of digital-content, images are often a key part of how we communicate. For students who use screen readers, a picture isn't worth a thousand words -- unless it has effective alt text. Alt text for images isn't just about checking an accessibility box; it's about making sure everyone, including people with disabilities, can access and understand your content. By writing alt text that focuses on an image's purpose, you remove unseen barriers and make your course materials more inclusive for all. 

Whether you're teaching, designing, or sharing visuals online, here are five ways to level up your image accessibility.

1. Write for Purpose, Not Perfection

What's the point of the image? Start there. Are you introducing a concept, reinforcing a message, or providing a visual example? Don't describe every pixel -- alt text is most effective when it's tied to the image's purpose, not just its appearance. An instructor's headshot just needs to be "Professor Henry Jones, smiling" not "A photo of a smiling middle-aged man with brown hair wearing a tweed suit, standing in a room with floor-to-ceiling books."

2. Say What You See

Screen readers already announce it's an image. Instead of starting with "Photo of a student," get to the point: "Student smiles while presenting a final project to classmates." Only mention format if it matters -- for example, "A bar chart showing enrollment growth from 2018–2024."

3. Context Is Key: Platform, People, Purpose

Your description should reflect the audience and platform. While alternative text for an image on social media might be conversational and brief; the same image in a course module might need more detail. Think about what your audience already knows, and what they need you to describe.

• Social Media: An image on Instagram or myUMBC showing students protesting on campus may say, "A crowd of U-M-B-C students fills the Quad in March 1981, holding handmade protest signs to show support for keeping the university open."
• Course Module: The same image in a history course's syllabus could be "Black-and-white photo originally printed in The Baltimore Sun showing a crowd of U-M-B-C students gathered in protest on campus in March 1981. The students' serious expressions and visible determination reflect their opposition to a proposed plan to shut down the campus."

4. Not All Images Need Alt Text

If an image is purely decorative -- like a border, divider, or flourish -- mark it as decorative so screen readers skip it. In many content editors, including Blackboard and Sites@UMBC, you can select an option to mark an image as decorative, which tells screen readers to skip it. However, if the image adds meaning or helps a student understand the content, it deserves a description.

5. Try Ally or AI for a Head Start

Use your Ally course report or individual Ally meters in Blackboard to find images missing alt text. You can also try Ally's AI Alt Text Assistant or Google Gemini to generate a description -- but always review and revise for accuracy, tone, and clarity. AI is a great starting point as a first draft for descriptions. It gets you 80% of the way there, but as the subject matter expert, you're the one who will make it perfect.  

Ready to take the first step? 

• If you'd like to learn more about making images more accessible, please sign up for Accessible Images: Basics of Alt Text & Decorative Images on October 10.
• Visit UMBC’s Digital Accessibility site or run an Ally course report today. 
• Support is also available from Student Disability Services and Instructional Technology.

Additional Resources

• Digital Accessibility Resources for Faculty
• Accessible Images

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Content adapted from the images workshop at the June 2025 Digital Accessibility Summer Camp (Theresa Mabe).

ONE FEMALE ONLY! PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE DESCRIPTION BEFORE CONTACTING! Looking for ONE FEMALE roommate for a furnished bedroom including linens in a Maiden Choice/Arbutus area private single-family home. The house will be shared with two female UMBC students/professional and the landlord couple. We're looking for a kind person that respects diversity that are either a UMBC/UMB Ph.D., Graduate, or Junior/Senior Undergraduate student that are a non-smoker within the home, non-drug user, pet-free, and a tidy person to share a large open concept newly renovated 4 bedroom and 3.5 bathrooms on a dead-end quiet street. If you have a medical support animal; no cats or shedding animals are allowed due to allergies, and you will need your updated documents from your physician and veterinarian. All medical and support animals must remain in the tenant’s bedroom and crated when not home or in their room, and you are responsible for cleaning up after your pet. You will have to submit proof of renter’s insurance. Other than medical support animals, absolutely no other animals are allowed. We currently have a non-shedding older friendly labradoodle that will not be crated, will not run away if the door is left open, and the sole responsibility of the landlord. 

The house is less than 2 miles from the UMBC campus and close to two shopping centers with shuttle stops to both sites and walking distance to our house. The UMBC Shuttle and public transportation bus stop is located a very short walk over to the next block. The UMBC Transit runs buses almost every 15 minutes from the Paradise-Purple Line during the week from 7am-12am. The first pickup at Leeds Avenue and Colchester Road bus stop is roughly around 7:25am during the week, again around 7:45am, and so on. The UMBC transit adds a third bus during the week around 10am. You can monitor the buses on the Transit Predictions (goswift.ly). The Purple-Paradise line is the most reliable of all the UMBC transit schedules. 

The room for rent is a second-floor large bedroom with a large closet including hangers and a hamper. There's a queen bed, matching long dresser with mirror, armoire, two nightstands, desk with chair, smart TV, two sets of new bedroom linens and new bath towel sets. You will have your own large kitchen cupboard and a locker cubby in the laundry room. You have access to a spacious open concept kitchen with everything you need to prepare meals including meal prep gadgets, icemaker, dishwasher and garbage disposal, laundry room, large front covered porch, living and dining rooms. All the bedrooms and living/sitting/dining/kitchen areas have Wi-Fi with streaming cable services. All utilities are included, water, gas, electric, and again the Wi-Fi with streaming cable services. The landlord is responsible for cutting the grass and landscaping. We are still doing renovations to the outside landscaping, sidewalks, and foundation border. There is street parking where we ask our tenants and their guests to be respectful to our neighbors and park directly in front of our house only. We have lease restrictions for overnight guests and shared cleaning responsibilities. The bedroom suite is available starting around January 1st or before and ending around May 25th, that includes holidays, weekends, Spring and Winter Breaks and/or vacations. Perfect for winter session!  The monthly rent is $1,000 FIRM, and we prefer a 4/5 month or a month-to-month lease with a $500 deposit. We’re a private home and NOT an Airbnb, hotel, campus apartment or dorm. All you need to do is bring your personal belongings, toiletries, food, laptop, and books! If interested, call 410-999-4668, Monday-Friday, 6pm to 8pm, to discuss further and a time to show you the house.

Hi everyone,

Today (October 8th 2025) at around 14:30ET, we experienced an unexpected system downtime. While investigating, we found that the failure stemmed from a failure on the file server associated with the ada GPU cluster (ada-rstor). In order to make the chip hardware available to users, we have temporarily disabled all network connections between the chip cluster and this ada-rstor file server.

Please know that we are currently working to understand the underlying issue with the ada-rstor file server. We hope to be able to make the ada-rstor volumes available ASAP. 

While we know this action disproportionately affects users of the chip-gpu cluster and we are appreciative of users' patience as we navigate this issue.

In the meantime, the chip cluster compute hardware along with any volumes should be available to all users. If you notice any issues with the use of chip unrelated to ada-rstor volumes (file paths starting with "/umbc/ada"), please report them via RT with as much information as possible.

Max Breitmeyer

HPC Specialist