Blackboard Ally

Center for eLearning

Mailing Address
Center for eLearning
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2121 Euclid Avenue, RT201
Cleveland, OH 44115

Campus Location
Center for eLearning, RT201
1860 East 22nd Street
Cleveland, OH 44115-2214
Phone: 216.687.3960
Fax: 216.875.9733
elearning@csuohio.edu

Accessible course content makes it easier for everyone to read and access your materials and can help improve overall quality and usability. There are many low-effort adjustments you can make to start creating more accessible content.

Blackboard Ally automatically runs course materials through an accessibility checklist that looks for common accessibility issues. The solution generates a range of more accessible alternatives for the instructor's original content including Semantic HTML, audio, ePub and electronic Braille. It provides educators with guidance for improving the accessibility of their course materials, while also supplying comprehensive reporting on the current state of content accessibility at both the course and institutional level.

Accessibility Score Indicators in Blackboard

Ally measures the accessibility of each file attached to your course and shows you at-a-glance how it scores. Scores range from Low to Perfect. The higher the score the fewer the issues.

High: File is accessible but could be improved.
Low: File is not accessible and needs immediate attention
Medium: File is somewhat accessible and could use improvement.
Perfect: File is accessible. No improvement needed. For files with Low to High scores, Ally shows you the issues and gives a step-by-step guide on how to fix them.

Find a file and select the Accessibility score. Follow the steps in front of you to go step-by-step. Select All issues to see every issue in the file and decide what issues to fix first.

Common Accessibility Fixes

Use a font size of at least 12px
Ensure that there is sufficient contrast between text and background
Ensure that proper heading styles are used
Ensure that a logical heading structure is used
Ensure that images have an alternative description that can convey the full meaning of the image
Ensure that tables are used for tabular data only
Ensure that all tables have column headings
Ensure that all lists use built-in list functionality
Ensure that all links have text that describes the target
Ensure that built-in PowerPoint slide templates are used
Don't use scanned PDFs
Ensure that all PDFs are tagged

Getting Started Documents

The following documents will help you become familiar with Ally, its mission, key features and successfully get started.

Instructor Resource Kit

Accessibility Checklist