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Before using the Accessibility Checker 

• Clean up your course! Remove items you are not using to avoid Ally checking these documents.
• Ally will check all items deployed in your course, whether hidden or available.
• Request a 91̽�� Course Template refresh if you are using the template in your course. 

Keep in Mind 

• Refresh your course using the browser refresh button. When using the accessibility checker and remediating documents, refresh your course using the browser refresh button so your accessibility report will update.
• Give Ally a chance to scan. Following a course copy or conversion, or uploading new documents, it may take a few minutes to several hours for the accessibility report to update, depending on the course size and types of documents. If you open it right away, you may see flags that could later roll off once Ally has scanned all materials, or you may see fewer flags than you will see once the full scan completes.
• Address easy fixes first, such as images without ALT tags and heading issues.
• Blackboard Ultra documents (created in Blackboard) – Issues with these (frequently heading issues) can be made inline via the Ally accessibility check.
• If you are using headers in your Ultra documents, you should use the “title” style at the top of your document and then use the “Heading” style (use headings in proper hierarchal order).  

Run the Ally “Accessibility Check” in your Blackboard course 

• From the Books and Tools area on the right menu.
• Ally will provide guidance on remediating each item that is not accessible.
• Address remediation of Ultra documents inline.
• Address image tag issues and broken links inline.
• Address external file (Word, PPT, PDF, etc.) by downloading, remediating in original application and reuploading to Blackboard) 

Resources for Ally and General Accessibility Guidance 

Center for eLearning website: Ally Overview 

Center for eLearning website:  

Blackboard:  

Center for eLearning: Instructor Checklists and Best Practices for Accessibility 

• If you are using a publisher platform to deliver content to students, check with your publisher to ensure that the content complies with Level A and Level AA success criteria and conformance requirements specified in WCAG 2.1
• If you are using instructor resources from a publisher in your course that you directly upload into your Blackboard course (Word documents, PPTs, test banks and pools, etc.), make sure they are accessible. Ally will tell you if they are not. If not, login to your publisher's content area or reach out to your publisher representative to see if there is an accessible version. Recent versions of these types of resources should be accessible. 

PDFs 

• PDF files are difficult to remediate, especially if you do not have the original source file. 
• It is recommended that you evaluate your PDFs to see if they are still relevant and necessary to keep in your course. If not, delete them from your course.
• It may be better to find another, accessible source for that material, rather than fix it. Electronic library resources or other accessible websites might be a better option.
• If your file was scanned but not scanned as OCR (made into text instead of an image), that will have to be done first, but scanning as OCR alone does not necessarily mean that document will be fully accessible.
• Some PDF updates can be done inline via Ally (OCR, titles, setting language); others will have to be downloaded, fixed in Adobe Acrobat Pro or other PDF remediation and reuploaded. 

Guidance on Accessible PDFs 

Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files  

• Will need to be downloaded and uploaded (although Ally can give you some guidance on these). Use the built-in accessibility checker in the Microsoft applications before re-uploading to Blackboard.
• Ally does not check Excel files, so make sure you are using the accessibility check in Excel prior to uploading Excel files to Blackboard. 

Microsoft Guidance for Accessibility 

• Center for eLearning detailed guidance 

Handwritten documents—like scanned notes, problem sets, or diagrams—are essentially images. Under Title II of the ADA and WCAG requirements, they must be accessible to screen readers and usable by all students, including those with low vision, blindness, or learning disabilities. 

• Guidance on handwritten documents is to digitize text. Images can be added (with alt-text. 

• Handwritten documents can be scanned using OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Use software (Adobe Acrobat Pro, Microsoft OneNote or to convert the image of text into actual, selectable and searchable text. Then, add structure (such as headings or lists) and image tags, if necessary.  

• Results of converting handwritten documents will be mixed, depending on the original source. 

• Use the Math Editor built into Blackboard Ultra. You can insert math equations and formulas into tests, assignments, discussions and journals by using the math editor. . 

• Use Microsoft’s equation editor in Word documents and PowerPoint presentations. . 

Videos must be captioned and have transcripts. Captions must be synced to the video. 

Panopto Video 

• When you record a video in Panopto, it automatically creates machine transcripts and captions. Video transcripts and captions should be reviewed for accuracy and proper synchronization to video. Since this is an integrated tool, Ally is not checking Panopto videos.  

Panopto Video Guidance 

YouTube Embedded Video 

• Ally does check to see if YouTube embedded video is transcribed and captioned.  

YouTube Videos Guidance 

• From 3Play Media:  

Other linked or uploaded video 

• Other videos uploaded to your course or linked from your course should be manually checked. 

• Create descriptive links, for example, use “Copyright Advisory Network’s website” as link text instead of “https: //librarycopyright.net” or “click here to find out more.” Link text should describe where the link leads.  
  See:
• Ally will check the actual links in your course, but it does not check content on external websites. Websites should be evaluated for accessibility. See: Checking Web Accessibility from the accessibility checklist.