Ally Integration With Canvas
Overview
Canvas now has an accessibility checking tool called Ally enabled in all courses. This tool scans course documents, pages, and images and gives instructors tools to improve the accessibility of their courses. Accessible instructional materials provide flexibility that is helpful to students with and without documented disabilities. UAF has a responsibility to improve the accessibility of higher education, and Ally is a part of those efforts.
What is Visible to Faculty
Instructors see a small color-coded gas gauge next to course documents and images that indicates their level of accessibility. Red means that there are critical barriers to access, yellow indicates some issues but none critical, and green means that the item is generally good to go, but may still have minor issues. Instructors can click on the gas gauge icon to add alternative text to images, or view suggestions for improving the accessibility of the document.
What is Visible to Students
A small “A↓” is present next to documents and page titles in Canvas. Clicking on this icon allows students (and instructors) to download the material in a variety of alternative formats. Depending on the document type, available formats include: mobile-friendly HTML, audio (mp3), ePub, Electronic Braille, Beeline Reader, OCRd PDF, and the Microsoft Immersive Reader. It is not able to produce alternative formats of documents that are embedded (via Google Docs, for example), or hyperlinked material.
Ally Course Accessibility Reports
Instructors see a small color-coded gas gauge next to course documents and images that indicates their level of accessibility. Red means that there are critical barriers to access, yellow indicates some issues but none critical, and green means that the item is generally good to go, but may still have minor issues. Instructors can click on the gas gauge icon to add alternative text to images, or view suggestions for improving the accessibility of the document.
Questions About Ally
If you have questions about how to use Ally, you can visit the help documentation or request a Designer Consult. Making documents accessible can be a complex process, and the design team can help. If you would like to know more about where Ally comes from and why it was enabled, you can read the Canvas Commons Overview for Ally or contact Nathan Feemster (nfeemster@alaska.edu) with any questions.