Guide overview
- the purpose of the Ally tool on HYMS Blackboard
- Ally scoring of content
- Ally guidance on improving content via the feedback panel
- how to improve original content outside of Blackboard and upload again
- Ally student view: alternative formats
- Ally course accessibility report
The purpose of the Ally tool on Blackboard
Ally helps improve how accessible certain types of content are by providing tips and step-by-step guidance for improvement and an accessibility report.
Ally automatically, where possible, also provides students with alternative downloadable formats for certain types of files.
Ally scoring of content
HYMS staff with Blackboard instructor or course builder roles will see coloured dials called accessibility scores on the left side of certain types of content items.
Please click on the following link to the relevant Blackboard help page regarding what the coloured scoring means: Ally accessibility scoring.
Ally guidance on improving content via the feedback panel
On an individual content item, select the accessibility score dial icon to open the feedback panel. This will provide you with helpful guidance on improving your content and the scoring. Please click on the following link to the relevant Blackboard help page regarding the feedback panel; Ally feedback panel.
Improve original content outside of Blackboard and upload to the feedback panel
We recommend improving the original version of an item of content outside of Blackboard and the Ally tool. For example, it is best to edit an original Word document in Office Word, original PowerPoint slides in PowerPoint etc.
We also recommend uploading the improved resource into the Ally tool feedback panel. This will replace the other version and generate a new rating. You will then see a success message if this has uploaded successfully.
Please access further guidance on improving content at the below listed help pages.
Ally student view: alternative formats
Please click on the following link to the relevant Blackboard help page: alternative formats. This explains the types of files that are reported on and what alternative formats are generated. Please also see our help page for students; Blackboard Ally: student guide.
Example scenarios for using different formatting;
- adjust text, font, and background color,
- copy, paste, and search,
- highlighting, note taking, and bookmarking,
- adapt format to a device (such as a mobile),
- work offline,
- flexible working whilst commuting, doing other activities etc,.
- and personal preference or need for listing or reading.
Please see the following link for more information of what a student might do with content in an alternative format. https://help.blackboard.com/Ally/Ally_for_LMS/Student/Alternative_Formats.
Ally course accessibility report
The Ally tool reports on all items in a Blackboard course. The report generates the overall course accessibility score, the distribution of course content by content type and the list of all issues that have been identified in the course.
To generate a report, navigate to control panel in a course menu, then course tools / accessibility report.
It is possible to sort by severity, issue name, number of issues identified and the accessibility score. It is easy to navigate to content items that have been flagged with an issue. This should make working through the remediation of multiple items faster.
Please click on the following link to find out more about what content Ally checks; Blackboard Ally guidance.