The USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Boosting Course Accessibility mini-grant program. This initiative will support 12 USM faculty members in engaging in digital accessibility-related course redesign to better meet the accessibility needs of all students. Each selected faculty member will receive a $1,500 stipend and participate in a collaborative professional development program designed and co-taught by our nonprofit partner, Teach Access.

Program Overview

Faculty grantees will engage in a hybrid program running from October 1 through November 21, 2025. The program includes:

• Completion of five asynchronous online modules (topics include: Defining Disability, Accessible Design, Universal Design, and two elective modules such as Content Development, Game and Interactive Media Design, Instructional Technology, Organizational Communication, and more).
• Participation in five 90-minute synchronous Zoom sessions held on Wednesdays from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. (October 8, October 15, October 22, October 29, and November 5).
• Presentation and discussion of course revisions at a culminating in-person event on Friday, November 21, 2025, at the National Federation of the Blind Headquarters in Baltimore, MD.
• Serving as a faculty ambassador for digital accessibility in Spring 2026, creating one outreach opportunity engaging faculty in conjunction with your representative from the USM Digital Accessibility Work Group.

Program Goals

This program aims to:

1. Promote inclusive teaching practices by equipping faculty with tools, strategies, and frameworks grounded in accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
2. Support the redesign of existing courses to reduce digital barriers for students with disabilities and increase access for all learners.
3. Build a faculty-led culture of access and accountability across the USM through shared learning, peer exchange, and cross-campus collaboration.
4. Establish models of accessible course design that can be shared, celebrated, and potentially scaled across departments, disciplines, and institutions.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Full-time faculty member at a USM institution
• Teaching is your primary professional role
• Available to participate fully in all synchronous and asynchronous program components, including the in-person event on November 21.

Grant Award

Each selected participant will receive a $1,500 stipend. Breakfast, lunch, and parking will be provided at the in-person event.

Application Instructions

Applications will be submitted using this submission form by Friday, September 12. The form requires the following information:

• Faculty member’s contact information
• Course Title(s) for Proposed Accessibility (Re)Design, Course Modality, and Approximate Enrollment per Term
• Response Questions:
  • Describe the course you intend to focus on in this program. The course should be one that you will be teaching in Spring 2026, although grantees are welcome to incorporate techniques starting in the Fall. Include details about the student audience (undergraduate general education, undergraduate in the major, graduate) and any known challenges or opportunities related to accessibility in the course. (350-500 words)
  • Why are you interested in participating in the Boosting Accessibility mini-grant program? What do you hope to learn, change, or contribute? (350-500 words)
  • What experience (if any) do you have with accessibility, inclusive teaching, or Universal Design? (Prior experience is not required.) (200-300 words)
  • How do you anticipate sharing what you learn with your department, colleagues, or institution? Consider ways your participation might have broader impact. (200-300 words)
• Confirmation of availability to attend all required sessions
• Letter of support from department chair or dean uploaded

In 2024, information systems Ph.D. student Ommo Clark penned an opinion piece for BusinessDay Nigeria exploring why many Nigerians diagnose and treat their medical conditions themselves, often turning to unreliable online information.

While the essay was inspired by firsthand experiences in her native country, the impulse to consult “Dr. Google” is a worrying global trend, Clark says, and one that has motivated her Ph.D. work. It’s unlikely that people will stop going online with health questions, so Clark is researching ways that AI could help patients, healthcare providers, public health officials, and content platforms better understand and evaluate the sea of medically related content on the Internet.

Ommo’s efforts were recently recognized when one of her research papers, co-authored with information systems professor Karuna Joshi, won the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Digital Health 2025, held in July in Helsinki, Finland. The paper, titled “Real-Time Detection of Online Health Misinformation using an Integrated Knowledgegraph-LLM Approach,” describes the results of combining two types of AI approaches to tackle the problem of identifying online health misinformation.

Read more about their work in this UMBC News article.

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