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 1.62.9 | 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 1.59.8 | 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 1.57 | 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.