Monitor and improve your institution's accessibility

Your school is full of diverse students with unique learning abilities. Providing them with more accessible original content means they can choose formats that work best for them: HTML for improved reading on mobile phones, Electronic Braille for the visually impaired, and Audio for learning on the go. Ally automatically scans your original content, and performs a series of steps to make them more accessible.

  • Provide an institution-wide course content accessibility report
  • Provide accessibility scores
  • Give instructor feedback on how to improve your accessibility score
  • Generate alternative formats for students to download

More on the importance of accessibility in education


Ally institutional report

Blackboard Ally provides a content accessibility report that allows for deep insight and understanding into how the your site is performing and evolving from a content accessibility point of view. This report helps track progress and can help highlight problem areas and identify initiatives that can further help improve accessibility at the institution.

More on the accessibility report


Accessibility scores

Ally provides scores to measure the accessibility of content. Accessibility scores are determined by the severity of issues in each digital file or WYSIWYG content editor.

Poängikoner för tillgänglighet i Ally

Poängen sträcker sig från låg till perfekt. Ju högre poäng, desto färre problem.

  • Låg (0–33 %): Behöver hjälp! Det finns allvarliga tillgänglighetsproblem.
  • Medel (34–66 %): Lite bättre. Filen är något tillgänglig, men behöver förbättras.
  • Hög (67–99 %): Nästan där. Filen är tillgänglig, men fler förbättringar är möjliga.
  • Perfekt (100 %): Perfekt! Ally kunde inte hitta några tillgänglighetsproblem, men ytterligare förbättringar kan ändå vara möjliga.

More on accessibility scores


Improve accessibility scores

Ally provides you detailed feedback and support to help you become an accessibility pro. Learn about accessibility issues, why they matter, and how to fix them. Green is the goal! 

Go to the accessibility report in your site manager. From the Accessibility issues table, find a specific content item in a section with an accessibility issue. Select the content item's accessibility score indicator to open the feedback panel.

This feature is disabled by default. Submit a request on Behind The Blackboard to have it turned on. This feature is only available when accessing the institutional report from site manager and not when using the direct access URL.

More on improving accessibility scores


Alternative formats

Ally creates alternative formats of files based on the original. These formats are made available with the original file so students and visitors can find everything in one convenient location.

You don’t need to do anything. The alternative formats are created for you. If you want, you can disable alternative formats for any individual content item for whatever reason.

Go to a file and select Alternative formats to see the different formats available.

More on alternative formats

student view of Download alternative formats modal