TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is Ally?
• Alternative Formats
• Accessibility Score
• Improving File Accessibility
• Course Accessibility Report
  • Access the Course Accessibility Report
  • Accessibility Scores
  • All Course Content
  • Choose What to Fix First
  • Remaining Issues
• Creating Accessible Files
  • Accessibility Checklist
  • Ally Micro Learning Documents

What is Ally?

Ally is a tool within myLesley, which creates alternative files that are easier to for all students to use. Ally creates multiple alternative formats including readable text for screen readers, pictures with captions, and easy-to-navigate content. You and your students can download these alternative formats anywhere that files are used.

Ally gauges the accessibility of your content and provides tips and tricks for improvements to your content accessibility. Ally also automatically creates alternative versions of your files, allowing students to choose the type of file that best suits their needs. This includes HTML, ePub, electronic braille, and audio (MP3) versions of your files.

For more information, view the View File Accessibility with Ally video:

Alternative Formats

Ally automatically creates alternative formats of your course files based on the original file. Available alternative formats include:

• OCR'd PDF: Makes scanned documents searchable, more readable, and accessible to users on a screen reader
• Tagged PDF: Improves use with assistive technology
• Audio: MP3 version for listening on a computer or mobile device
• HTML: Mobile-friendly version for reading in browsers or mobile devices
• Electronic Braille: BRF version for tactile reading on electronic braille displays, other braille reading devices, or within braille software
• ePUB: For reading and annotating on mobile devices or e-book readers 
• BeeLine Reader: Enhanced version for faster and more focused on-screen reading
• Immersive Reader: Aids in reading comprehension and grammar skills.
• Translated Version: This alternative format provides a machine-translated version of the original content into a total of 50 different languages. Supports PDF, Word, Powerpoint and HTML documents.

For more information and details about Ally alternative formats, go to the Alternative Formats support article. 

You and your students may access alternative formats of your files by selecting the file you wish to access and clicking the Alternative Formats icon to the right of the file.

Select a format and click Download.

Your file will download. This may take several minutes.

For more information, view the Ally Alternative Formats video or read more at Ally Alternative Formats.

To find out more about what students see, go to Accessing Alternative Formats of Documents in myLesley.

Accessibility Score

Ally measures the accessibility of your course files and shows you an overall accessibility score for each file. The scores range from Low (red icon) to Perfect (green icon). The higher the score, the fewer the issues.

Low: File is not accessible and needs immediate attention.

Medium: File is somewhat accessible and could use improvement.

High: File is accessible but could be improved.

Perfect: File is accessible. No improvement needed.

At this time, the following file types are checked for accessibility:

• PDF
• Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
• Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
• OpenOffice/LibreOffice
• Image files (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BPM, TIFF) 
• Uploaded HTML files 

Accessibility scores are determined by the severity of issues in each file. A low score indicates that the file has severe or multiple accessibility issues whereas a high score indicates that the file has minor accessibility issues.

Improving File Accessibility

To improve the accessibility score for your file, click on the score icon next to your file. 

This will show you the overall accessibility score and the biggest contributor to the overall score. 

Click on All Issues to see a list of issues with your document.

In many cases, instructions are available to help you fix the accessibility score of your file (ex How to tag a PDF). Click the Fix button to learn more about the issue and how to fix it. For more information and detailed instructions, go to Ally Instructor Feedback Panel.

A list of common Ally issues and fixes may be found here: Ally Remediation Cheat Sheet.

For more information on using Ally see Improve Your File Accessibility with Ally.

Course Accessibility Report

Ally’s Course Accessibility report allows you to see the big picture as well as specific details about the accessibility of your course content. 

Access the Course Accessibility Report

To access the Course Accessibility Report, go to your course Control Panel, select Course Tools, and select Course Report.

Accessibility Scores

At the top of the report is an accessibility score for the entire course. Scores range from Low to Perfect. The higher the score the fewer the issues. 

Low (0-33%): File is not accessible and needs immediate attention.

Medium (34-66%): File is somewhat accessible and could use improvement.

High (67-99%): File is accessible but could be improved.

Perfect (100%): File is accessible. No improvement needed.

All Course Content

The All Course Content section shows all content in your course grouped by content type. Click Start to start fixing issues.

Currently, Ally checks files in these formats: 

• PDF
• Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
• Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
• OpenOffice/LibreOffice
• Uploaded HTML files 
• Image files (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BPM, TIFF) 
• YouTube Videos 

The course report will also check content created using the myLesley text/content editor:

• Content Folder
• Content Item
• Learning Module
• A link to a Forum
• Web Link

Choose What to Fix First

The Course Accessibility Report gives you the option to decide which content to fix first. You can choose between content that's easiest to fix or content with the lowest scoring content.

Remaining Issues

Ally will list your remaining issues in order of priority. Severe issues will be listed first and minor issues will be listed last. Ally determines the severity if the issues by the number of students impacted, how often the issue occurs, and the accessibility score.

Creating Accessible Files

Accessibility Checklist

View the Accessibility Checklist for detailed information on creating accessible content. The checklist includes general accessibility information as well as detailed information for improving accessibility in myLesley, PDFs, documents (Microsoft Word), presentations (Microsoft PowerPoint), and multimedia.

Ally Micro Learning Documents

Ally has put together a series of documents that walk you through a series of accessibility scenarios and show you how Ally feedback helps you improve your document's accessibility.

• Add alternative descriptions to image files (pdf)
• Remove potentially harmful content (pdf)
• Scanned PDFs: An enemy to accessibility (pdf)
• Add a library reference (pdf)
• Add alternative descriptions to PowerPoint images (pdf)
• Add headings to a Word document (pdf)
• Add headers to your data tables in Word (pdf)
• Export a Word document as a tagged PDF (pdf)