Improve the accessibility of course content using Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally is a content accessibility service licensed directly from Blackboard. It is designed to help instructors improve the accessibility of their course content. Blackboard Ally provides accessibility checks for Course and Lesson content, provides suggestions for improving content, and provides alternative accessible formats to enable learners to use the format that best meets their requirements.

Blackboard Ally provides an accessibility score from low to high using a color and gauge icon to indicate the current score of the file:

  • Accessibility score is red: improvement required Red indicates a low score resulting from many accessibility issues. Files with this rating should be improved as soon as possible.
  • Accessibility score yellow: medium Yellow indicates a mid-range score. There are accessibility issues, but there are opportunities for improvement.
  • Accessibility score green Light green indicates a high score. The file is accessible, but there are still opportunities for improvement.
  • Accessibility score dark green: perfect Dark green indicates a perfect score. The file is fully accessible, there are no suggestions to improve the accessibility of the file.

The main accessibility score panel also contains a link that opens the Instructor Feedback panel. The Instructor Feedback panel contains the following information:

  • Accessibility score percentage for the entire file with the corresponding color and gauge icon.
  • A link to a list of all issues in the file, with a Fix button that you can use to fix, save, and upload the file with the improved accessibility score.
  • A description of the issue and how to fix it.
  • An upload window that you can use to drag-and-drop a new version of the file, or browse to the updated file.

For more information, see Blackboard Ally Help.