Features for Instructors

Ally provides instructor-facing accessibility reviews for Canvas course content. It then provides guidance and tips for improving accessibility, as well as automatically creating alternative formats of downloadable files for your students. Only instructors can see the colored accessibility score dial next to each file. 

• Ally evaluates the accessibility of every file associated with your course and provides a clear overview of how each file scores. The scoring system ranges from Low to Perfect, with higher scores indicating fewer accessibility issues or barriers present within the file.

• Select the Accessibility Score dial indicator to open the instructor feedback. Ally shows you the issues and gives step-by-step guidance on how to fix them.

• The course accessibility report, located within the Canvas menu sidebar, provides an accessibility summary and overview at the course level.  This report helps instructors prioritize remediation and gives options for order of fixing (e.g. content with the most severe issues first or start with content that is easiest to fix). 

• Remember, green is the goal! 

• Ally checks the accessibility of the following content:

  • PDF files

  • Microsoft Word files

  • Microsoft PowerPoint files

  • OpenOffice/LibreOffice files

  • Uploaded HTML files

  • Image files (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF)

  • Content generated via the Canvas Content Editor (Announcement, Assignment, Discussion Topics, Quiz Description, Syllabus, Page)

Resources

• Canvas Basics (PDF)

• Instructor Ally Quick Start

• Instructor Accessibility Scores

• Instructor File Accessibility

• Instructor Improve Content Accessibility

• PDN Self-Paced Ally Course

• Choose Accessible Learning Materials ( C.A.L.M.)

Features for Students

• Using Ally’s alternative format download, any student within your course can download files in 8 different formats:

  • OCR version (for scanned documents)

  • Tagged PDF (currently for Word, PowerPoint and OpenOffice/LibreOffice files)

  • Mobile Friendly HTML

  • ePub

  • Electronic Braille

  • Audio

  • BeeLine Reader

  • Immersive Reader (only for content generated via the Canvas content editor)

• Be sure to let students know that when an alternative format of content is requested for the first time, it takes 1-2 minutes to complete and can take longer for large or more complicated files. Closing the window before the file generation is completed will stop the conversion. After the new format is ready, students can download immediately. Ally saves the new version in cache, so any additional requests for the same format can be downloaded immediately without having to create it again.  

Not Optimal For

• PDF files that have a mixture of OCR and scanned pages cannot be improved/altered using Ally.

Dealbreakers

• Ally will only create an accessible version of a scanned (non-accessible) PDF for students upon request through the OCR alternative format. PDF files that are partially accessible (OCR) cannot be improved/altered using Ally. Faculty who desire to improve the accessibility of their PDF files should leverage the PREP PDF Remediation Tool.

• Image files (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF) are the only content types that can be corrected within Ally. All other inaccessible content must be updated outside of Ally and reuploaded to replace the existing content.

• While Ally doesn’t enforce a file size limit, there may be cases where the machine learning algorithm fails to generate alternative formats for certain large files (e.g. over 100 pages to generate an OCR PDF file, or over 200 single spaced pages for the audio format).  

Ways to Incorporate

• Enable Ally alternative formats for course files: Allow students to access course materials in various formats like HTML, ePub, electronic braille.

• Run the Ally course accessibility report regularly: Identify and address accessibility issues with your course content.

• Use the Ally file accessibility scorer when uploading files: Guides you in making uploaded files more accessible (e.g., add alt text, use headings).

• Integrate Ally feedback into your content creation workflow: As you create new documents, presentations, videos, use Ally to ensure accessibility from the start.

• Utilize the Ally accessibility checker within Canvas: When creating pages, assignments, discussions, use the built-in checker to identify and fix issues.

Accessibility

• When navigating through the instructor feedback dialog window, remember to select the “All Issues” button (default state is collapsed) to identify if multiple issues are present within a document.

• Remember, green is the goal for all content within a course!

• For support in writing good image descriptions, please visit the Keep C.A.L.M. Describe Images page.

General Information

You can access alternative formats of files if your instructor has enabled alternative formats for Canvas course files.

Using Ally’s alternative format download, you can download files in 8 different formats:

• OCR version (for scanned documents)

• Tagged PDF (currently for Word, PowerPoint and OpenOffice/LibreOffice files)

• Mobile Friendly HTML

• ePub

• Electronic Braille

• Audio

• BeeLine Reader

• Immersive Reader (only for content generated via the Canvas content editor)

When you first request an alternative format of content, Ally generates the format on demand which usually takes 1-2 minutes to complete. After the new format is ready, you can download immediately. Ally saves the new version in cache, so any additional requests for the same format can be downloaded immediately without having to create it again.  

Resources

• How to Download Alternative Formats

• Student FAQs About Ally

• Student Ally Quick Start

• Student View for Alternative Formats

• Four Learning Benefits of Alternative Formats