Release Notes for Ally - 2021

Ally 2.0.1 | Release to production 30 December 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Moodle integration, Canvas integration, D2L integration

Ally 2.0.1 bug fixes and improvements

  • Resolved an issue in D2L Brightspace where some institutions were unable to upload, process, and properly score new documents.
  • Resolved an issue where tables that were copy and pasted into the Instructor Feedback for WYSIWYG editor were not properly processed.

Ally 2.0 | Release to production 16 December 2021

New features, Learn integration, Moodle integration, D2L Integration, Canvas Integration

Instructor Feedback for WYSIWYG content

We're excited to announce that Ally now supports Instructor Feedback for WYSIWYG content!

In this first release of Instructor Feedback for WYSIWYG content, we're expanding Ally's scanning and feedback to now include support for content created in the course using your LMS content editor (WYSIWYG content).

Ally score appears above the content editor toolbar on the right of the screen.

In addition to the feedback and guidance you're familiar with for other content/document types - we've added some new features that make it quicker and easier than ever to improve the accessibility of your course content including:

Live scoring and flagging of accessibility issues as content is created and edited

Automatic suggestions and batch remediation to more quickly fix issues at scale

More on WYSIWYG Accessibility

This feature is now available for Blackboard Learn Ultra, Blackboard Learn Original, Instructure Canvas, D2L Brightspace, Moodle/OpenLMS, and  Moodle with Atto Editor. This feature is targeted to be introduced in a future release for Schoology.

This feature is disabled by default. To enable Instructor Feedback for WYSIWYG content administrators can navigate to the Ally Configuration UI and go to the Features tab.

In future releases we'll be improving the visibility of the score indicator in view mode, introducing support for other tools in the LMS, and more deeply integrating into the course and institutional reporting capabilities.

A special thank you goes out to our user group and community of beta testers that provided feedback during the development of these features - thank you!

Incorrect Language / No Set Language

Ally now provides feedback guidance for Word, Power Point, and PDF documents that have no set language or an incorrectly set language.

Panel showing buttons to find out what this issue means and how to fix it. As well as a place to upload a new document.

Ally 1.63.2 | Release to production 3 December 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Moodle integration

Ally 1.63.2 bug fixes and improvements

  • Alternative text for images in courses is now retained when a course is copied. 

    Applies to Moodle with the 3.11.3 Ally Plugin or OpenLMS 3.11.

  • In Moodle, adds the ability for administrators to see the display name and email of users requesting expert help.
  • Minor modification of tool-tip language in the institutional report.
  • Improved text layout in the administrator configuration for right-to-left languages.

Ally 1.63.0 | Release to production 19 November 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, D2L integration

Ally 1.63.0 bug fixes and improvements

  • Fixed an issue in Blackboard Learn where custom system administrator roles could not access course files through the institutional report.
  • Fixed an issue in D2L Brightspace where the WYSIWYG editor would automatically toggle into full-screen mode.

Ally 1.62.9 | Release to production 11 November 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Canvas integration, D2L integration, Moodle integration

Ally 1.62.9 bug fixes and improvements

  • Fixed an issue where an error was shown when attempting to download usage data from the institutional report in Canvas.
  • Fixed an issue in the WYSIWYG Learn editor that resulted in a decrease of performance when LaTeX characters were entered.
  • Resolved an issue in Learn that resulted in Alternative Formats not being available from instructor view for folders and items with conditional release rules.
  • Improved navigation and layout of table elements in the course report for individuals using assistive technology.

Ally 1.62.8 | Release to production 4 November 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Canvas integration, D2L integration, Moodle integration

Ally 1.62.8 bug fixes and improvements

  • Improved performance and language support for audio (MP3) alternative formats.
  • Improved navigation and layout of course report elements for people who use assistive technology.

Ally 1.62.7 | Release to production 21 October 2021

Updated features, Canvas integration, Learn integration, D2L integration, Moodle integration

Ally 1.62.7 bug fixes and improvements

  • Added a back button that closes guidance when viewing instructor feedback.
  • Fixed an issue in Canvas where alternative formats were not loading properly when an instructor used the Canvas Student View.
  • Improved error messaging during LTI 1.3 setup.
  • Minor improvements to better support Arabic braille tables.
  • Minor visual adjustments in instructor feedback workflows to improve spacing of content and buttons for non-English languages.
  • Improved navigation of tabular data elements for screen readers in the institution report.

Ally 1.62.6 | Release to production 14 October 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Canvas integration, D2L integration, Moodle integration

Ally 1.62.6 bug fixes and improvements

  • Improved alternative format file name to more closely match original name in the course.
  • Fixed an issue where alternative format downloads in the Blackboard mobile app were not properly functioning.
  • Fixed an issue in the institutional usage report where the date selector was not properly displaying available date ranges.
  • Fixed an issue where occasionally removing the image description from a .gif would not save correctly.
  • Fixed an issue in Canvas where tablets in alternative formats were not properly being converted.
  • Resolved an issue where filenames with non-alpha numeric characters were not properly being processed.

Ally 1.62.4 | Release to production 30 September 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Canvas integration, D2L integration

LTI v1.3 Support

Institutions are now able to integrate Ally into their LMS using LTI: v1.3. While no material changes will occur to Ally's functionality - LTI: v1.3. offers an improved security model based on OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and JSON Web Tokens.

Ally will continue to support LTI: v1.1 for the foreseeable future in order to provide institutions time to plan their migration to LTI: v1.3.

For additional information and configuration steps please see documentation for Blackboard Learn, Canvas, and D2L.

Moodle support is planned for a future release.

Canvas Developer Keys

Canvas Developer Keys provide an alternative integration method to the existing access token approach that offers more granular control over the scope and permissions granted to the Ally integration.

More information on Canvas Developer Keys.

Ally 1.62.4 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug where images were not properly being added to the ePub alternative format for HTML pages in D2L.

Ally 1.62.2 | Release to production 22 September 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Canvas integration

Ally 1.62.2 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved data quality for usage reports, available in the Institution Report for administrators.

    This improvement modifies the selectable days in the interface to provide data ending in the 1-2 days previous from the current day, based on your country/region.

  • Improved academic year titles for institutions whose academic term starts in January and ends in the same year. For example, if an academic term starts on January 1st 2021 and ends the same year, the title will now show: "2021".

  • Fixed an issue in Blackboard Learn and Canvas where tool-tips were not being properly displayed.

  • Fixed an issue in Canvas when generating MP3 audio alternative formats.

Ally 1.61.9 | Release to production 17 September 2021

Updated features, Learn integration, Canvas integration, D2L integration, Moodle integration

Course accessibility report in Safari

  • As a follow-up to the Ally 1.44 | Release to production 15 May 2020, we've now updated the Ally institutional report and configuration UI LTI tools to no longer rely on 3rd party cookies. Now, all Ally tools should load correctly in Safari.

This update also applies to other web browsers that have implemented or plan to phase out 3rd party cookie support.  

Ally 1.61.9 bug fixes & improvements

  • Minor improvement in Learn to course-copy synching with Ally for image descriptions.

Ally 1.61.7 | Release to production 9 September 2021

Canvas integration, Updated features

Ally 1.61.7 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed an issue in Canvas where deleted quizzes were not properly being displayed in the course accessibility report.

Ally 1.61.3 | Release to production 20 August 2021

Blackboard Learn integration, Canvas integration, D2L Brightspace integration, Moodle integration, Updated features

Ally 1.61.3 bug fixes & improvements

  • Added Irish (ga-IE) language support for the user interface.

Ally 1.61.0 | Release to production 5 August 2021

Blackboard Learn integration, Canvas integration, Updated features

Ally 1.61.0 bug fixes & improvements

  • Resolved an issue in Blackboard Learn where some users were presented with the error "Oops! This file couldn't be overwritten as there may be a wrong configuration." when uploading a new to file when fixing an issue.
  • Updated checking and scoring for images related to a recently resolved Canvas issue where decorative images were incorrectly marked.

Ally 1.60.3 | Release to production 30 June 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.60.3 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved readability and navigation usability on the course accessibility report.

Ally 1.60.2 | Release to production 23 June 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.60.2 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed an issue where navigation buttons were not placed properly for right to left languages.

Ally 1.60, 1.60.1 | Release to production 17 June 2021

D2L Brightspace, Moodle, Updated features

Ally 1.60, 1.60.1 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed an issue in Moodle that resulted in unused course files being incorporated in the overall accessibility score. Administrators will need to enable this option by checking the "Exclude unused files" that can be found by navigating to Site Admin > Plugins > Ally.

    Applies to Moodle with the 3.10.3 Ally Plugin.

  • Fixed an issue in D2L Brightspace where an error was presented when attempting to download alternative formats.

Ally 1.59.9 | Release to production 10 June 2021

D2L Brightspace, Updated features

Ally 1.59.9 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed an issue related to text and icon placement for right to left languages on the course accessibility report.
  • Fixed an issue in the institution usage report that incorrectly displayed an error when an appropriate date range was selected.
  • Fixed an accessibility issue where the download control in a PDF preview was missing the appropriate button tag.
  • Resolved an issue in D2L Brightspace where image previews were missing in instructor feedback.

Ally 1.59.8 | Release to production 3 June 2021

Canvas, Updated features

Ally 1.59.8 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved translation and layout placement for right to left languages.
  • Fixed an issue in Canvas where alternative formats for files in an assignment were only visible after viewing the instructions.
  • Fixed an issue where image previews in the feature configuration were rotated incorrectly on Safari.

Ally 1.59.7 | Release to production 26 May 2021

D2L Brightspace, Updated features

Ally 1.59.7 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed an accessibility issue related to minimum color contrast ratio for links when an alternative format HTML file was generated.
  • Fixed an issue in D2L Brightspace where spaces in image file names were creating errors when generating alternative formats for rich content.
  • Improvements to processing time for generating translated alternative formats.

Ally 1.59.2 | Release to production 30 April 2021

D2L Brightspace, Updated features

Unique user download data is now available in the Usage Report

Ally administrators are now able view the total number of unique users downloading alternative formats. This is also available when viewing by week.

Ally 1.59.2 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improves support for custom org units in D2L Brightspace.

Ally 1.59.1 | Release to production 22 April 2021

D2L Brightspace, Updated features

Ally 1.59.1 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug where the Ally alternative format icon was missing in some descriptions for modules and sub-modules.

Ally 1.59 | Release to production 15 April 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.59 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug where in some cases OCRed Alternative formats were downloading with random characters included in the document text.
  • Fixed an issue with Arabic text incorrectly wrapping within the Instructor Feedback panel.
  • Fixed a bug where in some cases the links added to the text in the custom Instructor Feedback Help panel were not showing as hyperlinks.

Ally 1.58 | Release to production 1 April 2021

Updated features, D2L Brightspace

Ally 1.58 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved the Translated Version alternative format to include the word "translated" in the downloaded filename to distinguish between the Translated Version alternative format and the HTML alternative format. For example, downloading the Spanish Translated Version for a file named Van Gogh.docx will result in Van Gogh - Translated - es.html.
  • Fixed a bug in D2L Brightspace where in some cases temporary modules that were used to create an Alternative Format for WYSIWYG content were not removed once that process finished.

Ally 1.57 | Release to production 24 March 2021

New features, Updated features, Instructure Canvas

Course Accessibility Report data is now available in the Usage Report

Ally administrators are now able view usage data for the Course Accessibility Report as part of the Usage Report. Within the Instructor Feedback Launches and Instructor Feedback Weekly data tabs, admins can see how many times the Course Accessibility Report has been launched along with the Instructor Feedback launch and total number of fixes data to better track overall engagement.

Departmental report is now searchable

Admins are now able to search through the list of departments available on the Directory tab within the Institutional report to facilitate faster searching and reporting when looking for specific departments.

Ally 1.57 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved our ElasticSearch infrastructure to implement data encryption-at-rest as well as allow for the ability to search the Ally Configuration Courses tab for Course IDs containing more than 10 characters.
  • Improved lists and headings detection within Arabic documents to improve the overall quality of the Alternative Formats.
  • Added support for the new Canvas file preview functionality to address an issue where the Ally indicators overlapped with the new Canvas icon.
  • Fixed an accessibility bug that prevented keyboard navigation to the Remove from Image button when editing and removing alternative text from an image in the Instructor Feedback.

Ally 1.56 | Release to production 16 March 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.56 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug in Canvas integrations where selecting the preview link within the Ally alternative formats menu didn't open the file preview.

Ally 1.55.3 | Release to production 11 March 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.55.3 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug within Canvas integrations where the Ally alternative format and score indicators were not consistently shown correctly next to files that are linked within a Canvas page.

Ally 1.55.2 | Release to production 4 March 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.55.2 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved the Department score CSV export released in Ally 1.55 to limit the CSV export to the specified department when exporting from the department level.
  • Fixed a bug in Canvas where in some cases users were unable to click to launch the Alternative Formats modal from the Canvas files preview.
  • Fixed an accessibility issue to update the headings markup used within the Course Accessibility Report to allow for proper navigation when using a screen reader.
  • Fixed an accessibility issue to improve the color contrast ratio of the Terms of Use text within the Alternative Formats modal window.
  • Fixed a bug where the filename was not aligned properly within the Alternative Formats modal window when downloading formats for right-to-left language documents.

Ally 1.55.1 | Release to production 25 February 2021

New features, Updated features

Ally in Hebrew

As part of our continued efforts to support universal design and equitable access around the world, Ally 1.55.1 makes the Ally User Interface available in Hebrew. There is now Hebrew support to the Ally institutional report, configuration UI, alternative formats modal, instructor feedback and course accessibility report, including full right-to-left support for all of these.

The Ally alternative formats are not yet available in Hebrew. This will be made available in a future release.

Ally 1.55.1 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug where in some cases when default help is enabled, clicking the help link within the Alternative Formats window also submitted the form.
  • Fixed a bug where files containing lists were not rendered properly in ePub or Beeline alternative formats for right-to-left language documents.

Ally 1.55 | Release to production 18 February 2021

New features, Updated features

Department score data now available in the CSV export

As part of the Ally 1.55 release, department score data is now available when you export a CSV from the Institutional report. LMS administrators can use the CSV export to easily compare across departments by accessibility score, amount of content, number of courses. and accessibility issues. When downloading and opening the CSV export zip package, you will now see a departments_months, departments_terms and departments_years CSV file available to analyze progress by department over time.

Ally 1.55 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved the ePub alternative format to make ePub titles more consistent by using the title from the original file or the filename of the original file when a title is not available.
  • Improved the handling and communication of failures that occur when uploading updated content back through the Instructor Feedback panel.

Ally 1.54.3 | Release to production 11 February 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.54.3 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved the labeling of form fields within the Request Help function of the Alternative Formats window.
  • Fixed a bug where Ally's accessibility check for headings did not account for non-breaking spaces within the document.

Ally 1.54.2 | Release to production 4 February 2021

Updated features, D2L Brightspace Integration

Ally 1.54.2 bug fixes & improvements

  • Improved the Ally alternative format download icon applied within D2L Brightspace's New Content Experience. Now there's a more consistent look and feel with other areas of the course.
  • Fixed an accessibility issue where zooming in on the Instructor Feedback panel or using a device with a small display resolution (of 600 px or less) causes the header and footer to hide the content being displayed to the user.

Ally 1.54.1 | Release to production 28 January 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.54.1 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug where Ally would incorrectly flag a contrast issue in certain PDF files with Type3 fonts.

Ally 1.54 | Release to production 21 January 2021

Updated features

Audio improvements for WYSIWYG alternative formats

Ally 1.50.2 introduced the ability to pickup on the appropriate text language from the WYSIWYG content area when downloading the Audio alternative format. This latest release allows Ally to pick up on the content title for a rich content item to provide additional context when downloading and listening to an Audio version.

Ally 1.53 | Release to production 13 January 2021

Updated features

Ally 1.53 bug fixes & improvements

  • Fixed a bug where in some cases Ally's Alternative Formats icons were not correctly aligned to the file within the Learn Original course view
  • Fixed an accessibility bug to add appropriate button roles to buttons in the Alternative Formats dialog