Presentation delivered by Drew McConnell, University of Glasgow at a SMUG Meet event on 4th March, 2022. Drew McConnell then covers the University of Glasgow’s experience of using Ally in a live setting. To join SMUG, subscribe to the mailing list at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/smug Watch the recording at: https://youtu.be/dcKyFeMaw7E

1. Using Ally to
improve the student
experience
- a journey
Drew McConnell
Information Services
University of Glasgow

2. Overview
Web
Content
Accessibility
Guidelines
2.1 AA
September 2019
• Web based platforms and services in scope (version number)
• Accessibility statements
• Content published since Sept 2019
• Alternative formats
September 23rd 2020
• Audio and Video
• All other web based platforms and services
July 2021
• Apps
2
The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and MobileApplications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

3. Our approach to content
• Harmonisation of usability and accessibility
• Accessible content is better content for
everyone
• Accessible by design
• It’s a journey!

4. General guidance for content
Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Digital accessibility website general guidelines for content 4

5. Installation
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
5

6. 74.6%
17%
1,599,883
66%
Blackboard Ally - Year 1
20,437
57% on 2019/20
Courses Content
Overall
average
score
6

7. Top 10 issues in Moodle
Issue Count
Image The image is missing a description 218,843
Document the document has contrast issues 132,561
HTML The html’s heading structure does not start at the right level 129,672
Document The document contains images that do not have a description 109,958
Document The document does not have a language set 80,942
Document The document does not have any headings 76,355
Document The document is missing a title 75,817
Document the document is untagged 74,670
Document The document has tables that do not contain headings 48,267
HTML The HTML content has empty headings 41,154
7

8. Staff POV
• Add resources to Moodle
• Ally analyses the resources
• Ally generates an accessibility score
Red – Low score (0-34%), file not accessible
Amber – Medium score (34-66%), file somewhat accessible, and could use
improvement
Light Green – High score (67-99%), file accessible but could be improved
Dark green – Perfect (100%), file accessible, no improvement needed
8

9. Training
• Click the Instructor feedback icon
• Do what it says
9

10. Ally demo1

11. Student POV – Alternative Formats
11

12. Alternative formats
• Downloads: 127,873
• Unique users: 15,335
• Courses with downloads: 3,820
01/09/2020 – 31/07/2021
Formats
12
BeeLine 1,413
Braille 354
ePub 4,695
HTML 31,924
OCRed PDF 2,431
Tagged PDF 85,320
Audio 1,736
01/09/2021 – 25/01/2022
• Downloads 110,502
• Unique users 12,737
• Courses with downloads 3,294

13. 533,143
Down 69%
Blackboard Ally - Year 2
7,490
Down 65% on 2020/21
82.3%
Up 8%
Courses Content
Overall
average
score
13

14. Conclusions
• We have senior buy-in
• Moodle team are awesome
• Most people want to do the right thing
• What we are asking people to do isn’t exactly rocket science
• By conflating user experience with accessibility this becomes about
improving the user experience rather than meeting a Regulation
• BBA make this very easy to do
• The Alternative format tool is also awesome!
14

15. Questions?
Drew.McConnell@glasgow.ac.uk
drewmcconnell