What is Blackboard Ally?
Ally is an external tool integrated into Blackboard to support accessibility and universal design for students and instructors at the University of Mississippi. Ally scans uploaded instructor content within Blackboard and assigns an accessibility score to each file. Instructors can then work at their own pace to enhance usability of the content using guided feedback. All students have access to on-demand alternative versions of course files.
Getting Started with Ally – For Instructors
Ally provides instructor-facing accessibility reviews for Blackboard 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.
- Instructor Ally Quick Start
- Instructor Messaging to Students about Alternative Formats
- Instructor Accessibility Scores
- Instructor File Accessibility
- Instructor Improve Content Accessibility
- Blackboard Ally Knowledge Base
Getting Started with Ally – For Students
Ally provides alternative formats directly to your download folder! Ally works within Blackboard to ensure that alternative formats are there when you need them. File formats include readable text for screen readers, captioned pictures, and content that is easy to navigate, using the original documents from your course.
| Your Needs | Braille | Audio | OCR'd PDF | Tagged PDF | Semantic HTML | ePub | Translated Version | BeeLine Reader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adjust text, font, and background color |  | | ||||||
| Adjust audio playback speed | | |||||||
| Commuting (Passenger) | | | | | | |
||
| Commuting (Driver) | | |||||||
| Copy, paste, and search | | | | | | |||
| Format adapts to device, responsive | | | |
|||||
| Highlighting, note taking, and bookmarking | | | | |||||
| Mobile device | | | | |
||||
| Desktop Browser | | | | | | | | |
| Prefer listening | | |||||||
| Prefer reading | | | | | | | |
|
| | | | | | |
||
| Text to speech with speed adjustment | | | | | ||||
| Different language | |
- Student Ally Quick Start
- Student View for Alternative Formats
- Student FAQs
- Four Learning Benefits of Alternative Formats