Ally and Accessibility Support
Instructors can use Ally to gauge the accessibility of Blackboard course content:
- Receive feedback on the accessibility of your content
- Improve content accessibility with Ally's step-by-step instructions
- Provide alternative formats for students to use
In addition to providing you with insight to content accessibility, Ally automatically creates alternative versions of your files that allows you to upload alt formats to students while also allowing students to choose the format that best meets their needs. As you're in the process of improving files, students can still access alternative formats.
Ally offers instructors indicators, reports, and guides to understand the accessibility of content and the ability to remediate content in real-time within the course. Ally offers alternative formats that both instructors and students can leverage to meet accessibility needs as well as an individual learner’s preferred modality.
Find or Remediate Content using Bb Ally
- Ally's accessibility meter and what it means
- View your course accessibility report
- Improve the accessibility score in Ally
- Decide which alternative formats to use in Ally
- Convert course files into alternative formats
Fix Content to Improve Accessibility
Free and open to everyone, Quality Matter's AURS provides the online community with important information on addressing key accessibility and usability concerns, including:
- Universal Design for Learning - Discover what you need to know about UDL and how it can assist you in creating accessible and usable content to meet the needs of diverse learners.
- Alternative Text - Find out why alternative text is an important principle in accessible web design and how you can use it to help all learners understand the meaning of the image used in your content.
- Video Captions and Audio Descriptions - Uncover the specific steps that must be taken to make video content accessible.
- Hyperlinks - Gain an understanding of how to set up links in the most accessible way possible in order to create accessible content.
- Accessible MS Office products - Explore the basics of Microsoft product accessibility, including alternative text, document best practices and utilizing built-in accessibility checkers.
- Readability: Color Choice and Contrast - Dive into the topics of readability and discover why color choice and contrast play a major role in creating accessible digital resources.
- Accessible PDFs - Take your readability skills to the next level and learn more about how you can make PDFs accessible for your learners.
- Cognitive Accessibility - Increase your understanding of cognitive accessibility and uncover strategies to combat this common barrier to student success.
- Inclusive Teaching Practices - Discover design and pedagogical practices to help you foster an inclusive and diverse online learning community.
Each topic features different resources to assist you with your accessibility challenges. Videos show you step-by-step changes you can make to increase the accessibility of your course. Examples highlight best practices. Articles provide you with additional information and resources. And forums allow you to connect directly with accessibility experts — peers who have expertise in designing accessible courses. There is also a General Accessibility and Usability Questions' Forum where you can ask any question that is unrelated to the listed topics.
Sign Up to Use AURS
Anyone with a QM account can register for the AURS site for free by logging into MyQM and selecting “Workshop - Register” in the side navigation, then choosing “Register for Accessibility & Usability Resource Site."
- Need a QM account? See → How do I create a Quality Matters account?
If you've already registered, the AURS link will be found on your Dashboard in the QM Classroom after you log in.
