Josh Loebner (’96, ’99), along with his family and friends, pose with Smokey in Neyland Stadium.
This Alumnus’s Groundbreaking Work Makes Tennessee More Accessible to Blind Visitors
For Josh Loebner (’96, ’99), one of the most important parts of being a Volunteer is being willing to think outside the box and push boundaries—especially when it serves others.
That Volunteer spirit carried him through a recent award-winning project with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Advertising agency VML—where Loebner serves as global head of inclusive design—partnered with the department to create Sound Sites, an initiative that takes accessibility to a new, immersive level by using the lyrics of iconic songwriters for alt image descriptions.
An Opportunity to Improve Accessibility
Loebner, who received a bachelor’s degree in forestry and a master’s degree in advertising from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is fully blind in his left eye and legally blind in his right eye. People who are blind or partially sighted typically use screen readers that audibly read what’s on a web page. When they get to an image, the screen reader will read alt text descriptions embedded in the images.
Oftentimes, those descriptions come up short. When a disabled reader doesn’t have access to adequate descriptions, it can be like listening to a podcast or an audiobook that skips over a pivotal moment.
Josh Loebner (’96, ’99) poses with his two daughters, Eileen (left) and Edith (right). Eileen Loebner is a first year student at UT studying applied artificial intelligence.
That’s why Loebner wanted to partner with Tennessee songwriters to write and record unique, immersive alt image descriptions that show all users what it’s truly like to travel to the state.
“I thought, ‘What if we could take songwriters who are adept at writing short storytelling through their lyrics?’ Alt text isn’t about a long paragraph—but it is about encapsulating in a few words something that’s magical and descriptive,” says Loebner.
Instead of describing a photo of a sunrise at Great Smoky Mountain National Park as “sun rises over the mountains,” Dolly Parton, David Tolliver, and Billy Montana wrote lyrics that detail morning mist resting in the valleys, a pink lemonade sky, and crickets singing nearby.
“For the majority of people who are sighted, images tend to put people in the places they’re looking to travel to,” says Loebner. “You can literally picture yourself in Tennessee through a picture of Broadway, the Smokies, or UT campus. If more inclusive descriptions are available, everyone can envision that, and it creates a better mosaic of the full experience.”
Thinking Like a Volunteer
Since its inception, Sound Sites has received a myriad of awards, including Best in Show at the Association of National Advertisers Conference, a win in Fast Company’s 2025 Innovation by Design Awards in the Accessible Design category, and even two awards at Cannes Lions in France.
For Loebner, it’s been a career-defining moment.
“To be able to elevate Tennessee to welcome more people to our state, especially as a University of Tennessee graduate and someone who’s blind, is one of those watershed moments within a career that is truly meaningful,” says Loebner.
After finishing his undergraduate degree, Loebner was looking for a career path. He decided to pursue a master’s degree in the College of Communication and Information but hadn’t decided what that degree would be until he stumbled into advertising and public relations professor Eric Haley’s office.
“I remember him telling me about advertising, and I felt like a fish in water. I was like, ‘This is it. This is exactly the career I want,’” says Loebner.
It was professors like Haley who Loebner credits with teaching him how to think critically and to think strategically about new ways of doing things. Loebner realized early on in his career that not enough advertisers were working toward inclusivity and accessibility, and he wanted to change that.
“My time at UT taught me not just how to look at gaps but to think about how I can bridge those gaps,” says Loebner.
For Loebner, the word “Volunteer” extends past a person’s time on campus. Part of his goal is to help others learn how to make design inclusive. The Sound Sites project even has resources for companies to figure out how to make their images sing—even if they don’t have songwriters.
A lot of people still don’t really know how to incorporate accessibility. If I can be a torchbearer and guide others into that space to welcome as many people as possible, it’s thanks to the Volunteer spirit I carry every day.”
Sound Sites received two awards at Cannes Lions in France.
