Ally for Canvas
Bowdoin is committed to making learning environments accessible to all students.
What Does Ally do in Canvas?
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Ally assists with creating more accessible learning environments within Canvas
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Provides faculty detailed feedback about the accessibility of course materials and steps to improve accessibility of these materials.
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Ally provides students with the choice to download accessible alternative file formats of course materials in Canvas.
- Provides faculty a way to re-upload a file once changes have been made.
Join us and learn more about making files more accessible in your courses.
Contact:
Jennifer Snow, Academic Technology and Consulting, IT
Juli Haugen, Academic Technology and Consulting, IT
Do all my files have to be 100% accessible right away?
We know this will be a challenge—Bowdoin faculty have hundreds of files in Canvas—and every little bit helps. Having Ally enabled in your Canvas course, benefits students in being able to download files in a format of their choosing. We would love to increase the percentage of accessible files in Canvas and can help!
What Will Faculty See?
In your course, you will see an icon (a gauge) next to your files. The gauge displays the degree to which each file meets accessibility guidelines. Click on the icon next to a file for information about the issue and how to make that file more accessible.
Note: Students do not see the Ally gauge icon on your files.
What Will Students See?
Ally offers several different formats of an original file (e.g. audio, electronic braille, HTML, and tagged PDF) so that students can use the version best suited to their learning. They will see a drop-down menu next to the file and can choose from the “Alternative Formats” option.
Video: Student view of Ally in Canvas
If your students have questions or are curious to learn more about Ally and accessibility, they can visit “Ally for LMS Help for Students”
How to Use Ally in Canvas.
- Jump right in with this Quick Start.
- Learn more about how to fix common issues.
- Learn how Ally’s alternative formats for files help everyone, and how your students can download them.
- View the list of accessibility issues that Bb Ally checks for.
- Download the Ally resource guide for instructors (accessible .pdf)
How To Get Help
- Visit the Information Technology's Campus Groups events page for upcoming Ally workshops.
- Contact Jennifer Snow or Juli Haugen