Presentation delivered by Gillian Fielding & Josephine Kinsey, Blackboard at a SMUG Meet event on 4th March, 2022. Gillian provides a brief overview of the Blackboard Ally platform followed by a live demo of Ally by Jo. To join SMUG, subscribe to the mailing list at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/smug Watch the recording at: https://youtu.be/dcKyFeMaw7E

1. Blackboard Ally
Accessible content is better content
SMUG 4 March 2022

2. Agenda 1. Introduction (1-2 mins)
2. Demonstration of Ally for LMS (13-14 mins)
3. University of Glasgow’s experience of Ally (13-
14 mins)
4. Close (1 min)
Please add questions in Chat
3pm in http://bit.ly/GillianFieldingsOffice
gillian.fielding@blackboard.com

3. Course content Web content
One consistent
approach

4. Blackboard Ally was originally created for
students with Special Needs (often referred to
as accessibility support).
But Blackboard Ally provides immense benefit
for all students.

5. Diverse 21st Century Learners
Invisible
disability
Commuters
First student
in family
Mobile
Temporary
disability
Professionals
seeking more
education
International
students
Parents/Carers
Visible disability

6. Challenges of building an inclusive environment
No insight into how
institution is doing
Increased legal
requirements
and
expectations
Lack of instructor
guidance on how
to improve
accessibility
Lack of instructor
awareness and
understanding on how
it can affect students
Explicit alternative
format requests often
exclude many students
and include long delays
Students are looking
for more universally
designed content
and flexibility

7. Accessible content is better content.

8. 900
Over
Institutions Around
the World
72 Million
Over
Courses Processed
2.5 Billion
Over
Content Items
Processed
Creating more inclusive learning
environments for all
Since
2017

9. The course content workflow
Instructor adds
course content to
their course
Content passes
through accessibility
checklist and is scored
Machine learning algorithms
perform a full structural and
visual analysis
Alternative formats
automatically
generated
Instructor
feedback is
provided
Institutional reporting
is available for admins
to track progress

10. Core Components of Ally
Alternative Formats
Automatically checks
for accessibility issues
and generates a range of
alternative formats.
Instructor feedback
Guides instructors and
content creators on
how to improve the digital
accessibility of their
content and alters
future behavior.
Reporting
Provides detailed data
and insights to help
further improve course
content accessibility
at the institution.

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11
3 Parts of Ally
• Alternative Formats: Student Experience,
Personalized Learning, Flexible learning,
Productivity, Digital Capability
• Instructor Feedback: Quality Improvement,
Awareness, Training
• Institutional Report: Data and Analytics

12. 12
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More information
• Blackboard Ally Webpages: https://bit.ly/BbAllyInfo
• Demonstration: contact gillian.fielding@blackboard.com. | 0044 7590 572 012
• Virtual Office at 3pm today: http://bit.ly/GillianFieldingsOffice