Ally in Brightspace for Faculty

This page provides resources for faculty on Ally, a tool integrated in Brightspace.

What is Ally?

Ally is a tool created by Anthology/Bb and integrated in Brightspace that can improve the accessibility of the course content by

• Creating alternative formats for the course materials posted by faculty in their Brightspace courses. For example, if faculty posted a PDF file, Ally will create an audio file to which students can listen, an ePub file that students can read on their iPad or other eBook readers, or an electronic braille format for students who are visually impaired, and more.
• Providing an accessibility indicator that enables faculty to review the accessibility of their posted course content and guide faculty to improve the accessibility scores.

How can I use it?

After you uploaded a document or created a content page in your Brightspace course, Ally will create alternative formats and the accessibility indicator for the document automatically as shown in the screenshot below. It may take some time as Ally scans your document. Afterward, you will see two icons displayed along with your document link.

• The icon on the right of the above screenshot with the letter A and a down arrow is the link to download alternative formats of the document. Your students can click on it and, on the pop-up panel shown below, choose their desired format by clicking the corresponding radio button, and then clicking Download at the bottom, as shown below.

• The icon on the right that looks like a meter is the accessibility indicator.  Based on the Ally user guide, faculty can click on it to review which parts of the document do not meet the accessibility requirements and how to improve them.

To learn more about Ally, check out the Ally Help for Instructors, and be on the lookout for the workshops on how to use Ally and how to improve the accessibility of your course content.