Ally

Status - Approved

 Approved for use. 

Tool Description

Ally is a tool that integrates into Canvas that improves the accessibility of course documents and images. Ally evaluates all documents and images that are uploaded to a Canvas course and provides recommended steps needed to improve accessibility of content where it does not comply with accessibility guidelines.  Ally also provides students with multiple formats of the original document so students can select the one that best fits their unique learning needs.

 

Overview

By default, each course will have Ally enabled. It is labeled Accessibility Report under the course navigation pane. This option is only available to instructors. Once navigating to the report, the instructor will see a dashboard that displays the overall accessibility level of the course. The TAMU template is 100% accessible when each course is set up.

 

Addressing Accessibilty Issues

Ally reviews all content within a course for accessibility. An overview of the content items can be found on the Content tab of the Ally Dashboard. Each item will then be given an accessibility score. These results indicate the accessibility of individual items in the form of a score icon appearing to the left of course resources. Faculty will see review results, however, students do not. 
 

Low (0-33%, red dial turned to about 33% from left to right): Item needs revision. There are severe digital accessibility issues. 

Medium (34-66%, orange dial turned halfway): The file is somewhat accessible but still requires revision to be accessible.  

High (67-99%, light green dial almost to right): The file is accessible, but more improvements are possible. 

Perfect (100%) (dark green dial turned completely to the right): No digital accessibility issues identified. 
 

Once Ally identifies issues, faculty should begin editing to resolve the issues to make the course usable and accessible for all students.  Those resources marked Low should take highest priority.
 
Best practice for accessibility is to create an accessible document before uploading it to Canvas. For more information on creating accessible documents, visit IT Accessibility.

 

Support

 For more info on this tool, please visit the Ally support page.