Blackboard Ally

Ally is BCM’s new tool supporting inclusion and accessibility, which allows students to download course materials in alternative formats like audio, HTML, and electronic braille. Ally focuses on digital accessibility for students, seamlessly integrating with Blackboard courses. It also provides guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility and automatically creates alternative versions of compatible files (check the list on Blackboard's website to see which of your files are compatible). This allows students to choose the type of file they want that best meets their needs. While you're in the process of improving files, students are still able to access alternative copies.

Students will be able to use Ally to generate alternative formats in your course without any effort on your part. However, not all course content will generate those formats well. Ally courses provide you with a dashboard to see how accessible your content is, and suggest ways of improving it. Please note that this dashboard is only visible to you, the course instructor, and not to students or colleagues; it is there for you to use if you wish.

Available to: Faculty | Students | Staff
Funding: Institution
Authentication: Single Sign-On (SSO)

Application Status website
Access Blackboard

Blackboard is also available via the phone app (iOS | Android) using the same credentials.

BCM IT Website
BCM IT Software Catalog
Access Blackboard support via the BCM Blackboard Support Center or on the Blackboard website

Updates

Alternative formats
Automatically check for accessibility issues and generate alternative accessible formats using advanced Machine Learning algorithms.

Instructor feedback
Guide instructors on how to improve the accessibility of their course content and alter future behavior.

Institutional report
Provides institution-wide reporting on course content accessibility and drive further improvements at the institution.

More Features

Instructors receive feedback on accessibility of classroom content
Comprehensive explanations of what features of content are inaccessible
Recommended directions on how to make specific content more accessible
Automatically generated alternative versions of content, available to students and instructors
Course accessibility report showing how the Blackboard course is or is not accessible

For complete information on Blackboard Ally visit the Blackboard Help Center pages. You can also watch a video on Blackboard Ally.

Review provided accessibility scores generated for certain content
Improve accessibility of certain content items by following Ally's step-by-step instructions
View and download alternative versions of content that are more accessible
Review course accessibility report to understand overall breakdown of accessibility