For Faculty

We Are Your ALLY!

By Leslie Smith, Instructional Designer; in collaboration with Terry Knight, Instructional Designer/Accessibility; and Gail Alleyne-Bayne, Program Manager

The world of education is as multifaceted as the wider world, with diverse students at every level. Until recently, it has been difficult to bring online course content into compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Existing content is often reused as-is from year to year, and new content is being created all the time by many different people. It seems like there's just no time to examine every document to make sure it's accessible to everyone. And there are so many rules with which to comply. It's all so overwhelming!

As of Spring Break 2019, you will have an ALLY in the battle to maintain accessibility! Ally is a tool that integrates seamlessly into TTU's Learning Management System, Blackboard Learn, to check your course content for accessibility according to WCAG standards. It was piloted during the Summer 2018 sessions with a small group of instructors, a larger group during the Fall 2018 session, and will be fully available for all TTU Blackboard courses after Spring Break 2019. If you would like to utilize Ally before it is deployed campus-wide, please contact eLearning Accessibility Services. 

Ally not only checks content for course authors, it gives feedback on how to improve course content. In a course in which Ally is active, an accessibility score icon (meter) is displayed beside a scored item.

  

By clicking on the meter, Ally suggests ways to improve the accessibility score of the metered content by providing the following:

• a feedback report with a percentage score on the accessibility of each of your files, when you click the color gauge icon,
• step-by-step instructions on how to fix/improve your files' accessibility, and
• a drag-and-drop area to upload files that you fix.

For students, Ally uses machine learning algorithms to generate alternative accessible formats of course documents such as PDFs, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files, OpenOffice documents, and uploaded HTML files. Students will see those alternative formats (such as audio, PDF, electronic braille, HTML etc.) automatically generated by Ally and can utilize them for learning purposes.

Now that you've had a sneak peek at Ally, are you feeling confused? Are you overwhelmed? Not to worry! Like the article title says, "We are your ALLY." For assistance with Ally issues and accessibility support, contact eLearning Accessibility Services.

Resources:
eLearning Accessibility Services Website
Blackboard Ally Help
Improve Content Accessibility
View File Accessibility for Instructors
Ally for Students