General

What languages are supported in Anthology Ally?

Anthology Ally is available in many different languages. Availability includes the Ally interface, as well as the alternative formats, including the audio format.

The audio alternative format is made available in a voice that reflects the language of the source document. It uses the most appropriate accent based on the location of the Ally deployment. For example, a user in North America would receive a North American English accent, a user in Europe would receive a British English accent and a user in Australia would receive an Australian English accent for an English document.

Anthology Ally is available in these languages.

  • Arabic
  • Catalan
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English, US
  • English, UK
  • Finnish
  • French
  • French, Canadian
  • German
  • Hebrew (Ally interface only at this time)
  • Irish
  • Italian
  • Maori (Ally interface only at this time)
  • Norwegian Bokmål
  • Norwegian Nynorsk
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Portuguese, Brazilian
  • Spanish, American
  • Spanish, Colombian
  • Spanish, Mexican
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Welsh

What Learning Management Systems is Ally available for?

Ally is currently available for these Learning Management Systems:

  • Blackboard Learn 9.1 (Q2 2017 CU3 release and above)
  • Blackboard Learn SaaS Original and Ultra Course View
  • Instructure Canvas
  • Self-hosted Moodle
  • Open LMS
  • D2L Brightspace
  • Schoology

What browsers are supported?

Ally is supported on the same browser as the Learning Management System (LMS) it is accessed from.

  • Google Chrome™
  • Mozilla Firefox®
  • Microsoft Edge®
  • Internet Explorer®
  • Safari®

What happens when a course is copied? Does Ally go with the course copy?

Yes. When you copy a course, all alternative formats and instructor feedback will also be available in the new course.

There can be a delay before everything is moved over to the new course.

When you archive a course, only references to file accessibility are available. Ally is a cloud service and will store the alternative formats on the Ally servers, which means that these are not pushed back to the LMS. The alternative formats will not be stored inside of the course archive, but the reference from the course archive will continue to be available.

What to consider when adding standalone images to WYSIWYG content?

When you add standalone images to WYSIWYG content, you must manually add its metadata —such as alternative texts— to ensure its accessibility.  This needs to be done since metadata previously added to standalone images won’t be automatically copied.

Once alternative descriptions are directly added to images on the WYSIWYG page, these will be retained when a course is copied.

What are some examples of how accessibility can benefit all students?

In many cases, improving the accessibility of course content benefits all students, including those without a disability. Accessibility is often closely connected to the quality and usability of the course materials.

Example 1: Having a proper digital copy of a document instead of a scan makes the document more usable for all students. It might make the document easier to read, especially for low-quality scans, and it also allows students to search through the document and find specific content, copy and paste sections of the document, and so on.

Example 2: The Semantic HTML alternative format is fully responsive and mobile-friendly and makes it easier for all students to consume to content on their mobile device. The ePub alternative format makes it easy to change the visual display of a document and allows for annotations and highlighting to be added. The audio alternative format can be used during a commute, on a run, etc. The translated version alternative format can help second language students.

Example 3: Having a video with captioning or a transcript will make the video more usable for all students. It allows the student to search through the video and find specific parts, the video can still be watched in high-noise environment (for example, commuting), and so on.

Example 4: Having an image with a quality description can make the image more usable for all students. It can help clarify the content of the image and how it connects to the surrounding context, it makes the image searchable, and so on.

Example 5: Providing a good heading structure for a long document makes the document more usable for all students. It provides additional structure, which makes it easier to work through and process the content. It also allows for a Table of Contents to be generated, which can improve the navigability of the document.

Will Ally change my course appearance?

The only difference you'll see within your course is that Ally provides an accessibility score for your files. The score is shown by a gauge icon next to your course files. Select the gauge to view and improve your file accessibility.

What do students see?

Students see a menu to the left or right of each document. From this menu, they can select Alternative formats to access available versions they can download. Although they can download alternative formats of your files, it is best to improve the documents through the instructor feedback.

More on Ally for student

What happens to my original files?

The original file stays in your LMS. Ally doesn't store a copy of the original, move the original, or delete it.