Blackboard Ally and Accessibility – Instructor Training

Workshop Content

Instructors and institutions understand the need for accessible content. The Blackboard Ally solution automatically checks course content for accessibility issues and uses this information to focus on key areas of support.

• Alternative Accessible Versions – Blackboard Ally automatically generates alternative accessible versions for course content and makes these available to all users within the course within minutes.
• Instructor feedback – Blackboard Ally provides the instructor with feedback about the accessibility of their course content and guidance on how to fix accessibility issues that arise.

Designed to provide an overview to the concept of accessibility, accessibility issues, and focuses on the benefits provided by Blackboard Ally.

Participants will learn how Ally evaluates existing and new course content, and will observe and understand the various alternative formats which it generates. They will also learn how to incorporate the feedback that Ally provides to increase the accessibility of any new materials they add to their course.

In keeping with the concept of Universal Design, course participants will learn to incorporate the feedback that Ally provides into specific best practices when creating and modifying materials using common software programs such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF.

Workshop Objectives

Upon completion of the workshop, participants should be able to:

• Understand and identify the benefits of universal design.
• Identify accessibility challenges institutions, instructors and students face.
• Create alternative accessible versions of course content.
• Apply changes to content based on recommendations from the Ally accessibility plan.
• Understand and interpret results based on recommended remediation approaches.
• Identify and utilize accessibility tools to create more accessible content.

Who Should Attend

Course instructors, course designers, administrators, and support personnel who wish to learn more about using Ally to support accessibility.

Duration

This workshop is delivered using Blackboard Collaborate in one 2-hour session.

This session will be recorded and the link will be made available shortly after it concludes.