Brightspace: How to use Ally Accessibility Tool (Instructors)

To learn about the Ally Accessibility, please review the links below.  Don't have time to review the links below? Watch a 60 second video overview of Ally Alternative Formats in Brightspace:

How do alternative formats get created? Do instructors have to create alternative formats?
Where do alternative formats appear in the course?
Where can I learn more about alternative formats?

How do alternative formats get created? Do instructors have to create alternative formats?

• No, as an instructor you do not create the alternative format in the course.  Ally will automatically do this for you and and make it available to students.  
• When you add files or a page to your Brightspace course, Ally automatically generates alternative formats such as audio, ePub, electronic braille, and translated versions. 
• Then, students can choose the format that best suits their needs. For example, if you uploaded a PDF file into your Brightspace course, Ally will provide this content in various alternative formats, such as an audio file, plain text, or HTML.

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Where do the alternative formats appear in the course?

• On each file uploaded into the course and page created in your course, an "A↓" icon will appear next to it.  It will appear for you and your students.
  
  
   
• To access the alternative formats, students simply click on the "A↓" icon and select the alternative format that they want to use.
  
  

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Where can I learn more about alternative formats?

• Alternative Formats FAQs (e.g. alternative format types, what does file format does Ally create alternative formats for?, file size limit)
• How to disable alternative format for a specific file
• Additional information on alternative formats

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To learn about the Ally Accessibility, please visit the links below.  Don't have time to review the links below? Watch a 90 second video explaining how to use the Ally Accessibility Score:

What is the accessibility score? How is the "score" supposed to help improve accessibility?
Where do scores appear in the course?
What are the scores and what do they mean?
Do students see the accessibility score?
How can I improve the accessibility score?

What is the accessibility score? How is the "score" supposed to help improve accessibility?

• To measure the accessibility of a file or page, Ally assigns a "score" to that file and page and displays only to the instructor (students DO NOT see this score).  The score is numerical number and colored gauge (red, orange, yellow, green). 
• The "score" is designed to help you improve the accessibility of a course file/page by highlighting which files need the most attention and provide instructions on how to improve the accessibility of that file. 
• A low score means the file has multiple accessibility issues; a high score means there are minor or no accessibility issues. For accessibility scores less than 100 percent, Ally provides you tips for improving the accessibility of the file.
• Examples of numerical and colored gauge score:
  
                     

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Where do the scores appear in the course?

• On each file uploaded into the course and page created in your course, a colored gauge will appear next to it.  Once you click on that gauge, the exact score and along with the specific accessibility recommendations will appear on the screen.
  
  

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What are the scores - what do they mean? 

•  Low (0-33%): There are multiple and significant accessibility issues. 
   
•  Medium (34-66%): The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.
   
•  High (67-99%): The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.
   
• Perfect (100%): Ally didn't identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.

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Do students see the accessibility score?

• No, students cannot see any accessibility scores. 

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How can I improve the accessibility score?

• Once you have located the accessibility score for file/page, Ally will explain the exact accessibility issue, what it means, and how to improve it.  Follow the instructions displayed on the screen.
  
  
   
• Here some common accessibility issues and how to fix them
  • Adding Image Descriptions
  • Adding Headings to a Document
  • PDF Remediation
  • Older PDFs of readings missing OCR (Opticial Character Recognition) - making unreadable to screen readers
    • Contact Falvey Library - eReserves to find higher quality, OCR version of reading
  • Adding Headers to Document Data Tables
  • Fixing Text Contrast