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  1. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  2. Educational Development
  3. Improve Your Course Accessibility. Blackboard Ally Pilot Sign-Up.

Improve Your Course Accessibility. Blackboard Ally Pilot Sign-Up.

Beginning Spring 2021 faculty and programs can sign-up to enable Blackboard Ally for their courses.

What is Ally?

Blackboard Ally is a course accessibility tool with multiple features that can help instructors, students, and the institution. It can provide alternative formats,  feedback, and accessibility reports.

Overview for Instructors of Ally for Learning Management Systems

How does Ally help? Alternative Formats.

Out of the box, Ally does a lot of work for instructors and students by providing alternative formats for all uploaded content. This enables students to access course content in ways that are more meaningful to them.

Ally Alternative Formats Selection Menu. It gives the options to pick several formats.

[youtubeui url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOORcSEjtJU” /]

Learn More About the Alternative Formats

How Does Ally Help? Feedback and Reports.

Ally also scores course content against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Once scored, instructors can receive feedback and tips on how to improve course content for accessibility.
screenshot of accessibility feedback for a document

Instructors also get access to a course report that breaks down accessibility issues.

Screenshot of the Ally Course Report. It numbers the total documents, issues, and total score for the course.

How can Ally help a program?

Program leaders may be interested in combined accessibility scores for their department. Program leaders can learn what type of accessibility issues affect their content, which courses need the most help, and more.

If you’d like to look at your program’s current score please contact us at BlackboardHelp@uams.edu.

Can I see a demonstration?

Yes! We list sessions on our training page or you can schedule a custom time. Please sign-up.

How can I get started?

Contact us at BlackboardHelp@uams.edu if you’d like to enable Ally for one or more of your courses.

Posted by Jake Martar, M.Ed on October 13, 2020

Filed Under: eLearning

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