eCampus Ally FAQ

Below are common eCampus Ally questions and answers for instructors and students. If you need further assistance, please submit a ticket for eCampus Support. 

What is Ally?

Ally is a new feature that promotes inclusivity for all learners. Ally integrates into the institution’s learning management system (LMS) to gauge the accessibility of your content, while also providing guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility. 

What are the benefits of including Ally in eCampus courses?

Ally provides real-time, alternate versions of course content, guides instructors how to improve their course accessibility, and shares insight regarding institutional trends regarding accessibility. Ally:

• provides students with downloadable alternative formats to their online course content so that they can access and engage with their classes in the ways they learn. 

• provides guidance and tips for faculty in making lasting improvements to content accessibility in their courses. 

• provides the institution data around the state of accessibility along with data that can be used in conjunction with larger institutional planning and initiatives.

Why use Ally? 

Ally promotes a culture of inclusion across campus and benefits all learners. 

The alternative formats benefit all students, including those with disabilities or those that are struggling and in need of additional support.

How can all students benefit from Ally?

Ally automatically generates accessible alternative versions of your files and makes them available to the students in your course while maintaining a copy of your original file.

A student who is a parent, or collegiate athlete, or working full time, could listen to an audio version of lesson content during travel or doing other tasks. Those for whom English is a second language can also benefit from hearing the audio or seeing a written translation. Some students with different learning styles or reading challenges might absorb the content better if they can use a different font or page layout, or use markup to annotate. We are all different.

What is the benefit for faculty?

Ally provides accessibility feedback in the form of “indicators” that appear next to your content. Click on the accessibility meter to quickly and easily fix many accessibility concerns right in eCampus. Ally provides step-by-step guides to edit original documents, too - making it easier to bring your course content into compliance with WGAC 2.0 accessibility standards. Offering students alternative formats also supports student success and retention, as they learn in different ways.

What do the indicators (accessibility meters) mean? 

Indicators (a meter icon next to content items) are meant to provide helpful awareness around your course content’s accessibility while providing feedback about ways to make content more accessible moving forward. Click the meter to get more information about the accessibility of any item in your course content areas.

Do students see the indicators?

No. The accessibility indicators are available only to faculty. They are not visible to students.

However, students may see the meters if you log into your course while screen sharing. Instructors should consider using the Student Preview/Student Mode before screen sharing.

Will I be punished if I have red indicators (i.e., low scores) in my courses? 

The accessibility indicators are designed to give faculty an idea of the accessibility of content. They are meant to bring awareness as most faculty have not had previous accessibility training. Each department or program will determine expectations regarding courses that continually have low accessibility scores.

Will I still need to provide academic accommodations if Ally is turned on for my course?  

Ally is not a compliance software. It is designed to make content more available to students by providing alternate versions, and to provide guidance to faculty regarding the accessibility of their content. Students and faculty will still partner with WVU’s Office of Accessibility Services around academic accommodations as they can remove specific barriers for an individual student.

Where do I find additional resources, guidance, and support? 

You can review the training guide and video in WVU’s IT Help Center for an overview of Ally’s features.

Click the Help link in Ally’s Instructor Feedback panel or find a link on the above training guide page to be directed to the Blackboard Help site for Ally.

I received an email asking me to participate in a pilot. Why was I chosen? 

We are asking you to be part of this pilot because you are a faculty member who has a history of excellent partnership with us, and provides valuable feedback. We hope that you will quickly see the benefits of Ally as we do, and would be willing to share your experience with other faculty. 

I am part of the pilot. Do I have to turn on Ally for all my live courses? 

Thank you for being part of our pilot. We would like to give the option for which classes you would like to enable Ally.

1. Please turn on Ally for all my live courses in the current term.

2. Please turn on Ally for some of my live courses in the current term. I will provide you the list.

3. Please turn on Ally for a course I am currently developing for the next term.

4. Please turn on Ally for a course that I have previously taught, as I will be teaching it again in a future term.

What am I expected to do in the pilot? Why should I do this?

Once Ally is enabled for your course(s), we ask that you: 

1. Try out the different features of the instructor feedback.

2. Fix all of the issues where an image is missing alternative text.

3. Fix 1 document so it reaches 100%.

4. Ensure that your syllabus reaches 100% accessibility.

5. Ensure that all files are at least 50% accessible.

6. Once Ally is enabled for your course(s), we ask that you:

   1. Fix enough issues to reach a score of 70% for the whole course.

   2. Fix enough issues to increase your initial course score by 10%. 

 Doing this will help the Ally Adoption Team to gain information about where faculty are going to need more support. We will follow up with you to receive more specific info. Also, making these improvements will help ensure the highest quality online learning experience for all of our students.

Why do I need to fix my source files? I thought Ally did that.

Ally does a good job of providing a more accessible alternate format for content. However, Ally does not change the original source file. Therefore, your help is instrumental in remediating the source files. Doing this remediation one time will help to ensure that file is of the highest quality when the file is used in another course, or when that course is copied to another term.

How much time will it take to fix the original source file?

We understand that your time is valuable and limited. We have provided a general sense of how long certain accessibility issues will take. This may vary depending upon your technology, and previous experience fixing content.  

• Add missing alt text to an image: 15 seconds to 1 min 

• Add headings to Word document: 1 to 3 mins 

• Add missing Header Row to Word document: 15 seconds

What do I need to tell my students?

 We hope that you are willing to share information with your students with any of the following ways: 

• Make an announcement in class.

• Make an announcement in your LMS.

• Include an Inclusivity Statement in your syllabus.

• Allow a representative from the Ally Adoption Team to make an announcement in class. Please let us know what day/time you’d like us to visit.  

Who will have access to the accessibility scores in my course? 

eCampus administrators, instructional designers and others directly involved in technical assistance for your course have access to the accessibility scores when they are in your course shell. These individuals have access due to their administrative or support roles on campus.

Should I tell students with disabilities in my class about Ally?

Please encourage all students to use the alternative formats in the course. However, please be mindful to avoid singling out any students who may benefit, particularly those who have disabilities. Singling out any student(s) could create a disability and/or privacy violation.

Is there someplace I can connect with other Ally users?

While we have a group on campus that will meet each term about Ally, there is an international, open group for people using Ally. You are welcome to sign up as a member of the Ally User Group at https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard. This is a free group to join. You may leave the group at any point.

Does Ally produce quality alternate formats? What do I do if Ally produces a low-quality alternate format? 

Ally produces high quality alternate versions. However, the quality of the conversion is dependent upon the quality of the source file. If the source file is low-quality (is crooked, has handwriting, has highlights, has text cut off, has poor contrast, etc.), Ally will produce a lower-quality alternate format.  

What will Ally not handle well? 

It is a goal of the Ally team to provide the most robust, yet easy-to-use software. However, Ally current does not:  

• Evaluate or provide alternate versions of SCORM files.  

• Evaluate or provide alternate versions of ZIP files.  

• Convert all handwriting at a sufficiently acceptable quality. Some handwriting may convert better than others.  

• Make all STEM content fully accessible. This is a limitation of automated technology, felt across the entire accessibility industry.

What systematic changes can I make that will produce the most accessible content?

There are lots of small changes that you could make to help ensure that all of your content is more accessible and usable by all people. Here are some ideas to get you started: 

•  Use headings in Microsoft Word.

• Use the built-in Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker in Word and PowerPoint before distributing.

• Always use the most current version of Microsoft Office available to you. 

• If you must use a PDF, try to share a Word Document version as well.

How much time will it take to download an alternative format?

Alternative versions take 1-2 minutes to generate when first requested and are immediately available after that, so you can access them on demand, any time.

How do people use each of the alternate format options?

Options are helpful for most people. Ally provides options to consume your content in a variety of alternative formats. If you would like to learn more about how each format can support your learning need, visit Blackboard/Anthology’s Alternate Formats list.

 Some examples - MP3 audio can be great for listening to content while commuting, at the gym, or cleaning. The ePUB version is great for annotating content on mobile devices.

Why was Ally brought to campus now? Don’t we have other priorities?

High quality digital course content supports several of this institution’s top priorities: retention, student success, and improved online learning. Ally is a tool to help us provide alternate versions so students can choose a format that is best for their learning needs, and it helps to educate instructors about identifying and removing accessibility barriers. We need this on campus now to begin a systemic enhancement of our educational digital content.

How does Ally connect to the “bigger picture” or campus vision? 

WVU has a vision of offering high-quality, universally accessible online courses and programs. Ally is one tool that will help us to identify and remove accessibility barriers. By using Ally, the educational experience will be enhanced for all students who interact with online content. Ally supports the more personalized experience students want by acknowledging different learning styles and needs. That flexibility that may contribute to student retention.

Why do I need to submit Ally questions through the ITS Service Desk?

The ITS Service Desk tracks Ally-related questions and directs them to the best person. Additionally, these tickets are reviewed regularly to enhance support and training materials.

Does Ally guarantee accessibility or compliance? 

No, Ally is NOT a compliance tool and will not automatically make our institution compliant. Accessibility of digital course content is a challenging problem and is very much a spectrum or continuum. Full compliance is a complex and nuanced statement to make and is extremely difficult to achieve. 

 Ally will help move WVU towards compliance by automatically generating more accessible alternatives for content items, providing feedback and guidance to instructors and providing insight to the institution’s overall performance.

What about copyright?

Blackboard respects the intellectual property rights of others and we ask our users to do the same. 

To that end, Blackboard has built the following features and capabilities into Blackboard Ally to help a school or user determine whether downloading an alternative format of a content item is permissible: 

1. Blackboard Ally includes functionality that, prior to downloading an alternative format of a content item, requires an end-user to indicate that: (a) he/she is authorized to obtain an alternative format because, for example, he/she owns the copyright, has a license from the copyright holder, or has a print disability; and (b) he/she will not copy or distribute such alternative format. 

2. In Blackboard Ally, a user who uploads content into a course can determine on a content item by content item basis or course by course basis to enable or disable the availability of alternative formats.

3. Blackboard Ally screens for password-protected files and pdf’s with metadata restricting derivative works and does not permit creation of alternative formats for those files. Such protections have been put in place by many publishers to help avoid copyright infringement. 

Finally, it is important to note that many jurisdictions have exclusions in their copyright laws that permit the creation of alternative formats of content for individuals with disabilities, and that many licenses for content items permit the creation of derivative works (i.e. alternative formats) for all users – for example, instructor-created content may be licensed to users with broad rights to create alternative formats. 

We encourage users to follow this guidance when downloading alternative formats. 

Aren’t you infringing on my intellectual freedom?

WVU is required to follow national and state laws to prevent discrimination based on disability. Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act have existed since 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act came out in 1990. WVU has long provided guidance on web content and applications at webstandards.wvu.edu.  

Ensuring that your content is accessible is more about ensuring the format is usable by all students which does not infringe on intellectual freedom. If you have specific concerns, please contact the WVU Office of Accessibility Services, our faculty support services, and our Section 508/ADA Compliance Officer.  

For those who have specific students with disabilities in your course, WVU Accessibility Services is happy to consult on accommodations that you feel are a fundamental alteration of your course objectives.