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).
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
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.
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 1.61.9 | 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 1.61.3 | 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 1.60, 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 1.59.7 | 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 1.59.1 | 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 1.58 | 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 1.54.2 | 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.