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6.13. Understanding Ally Reports: What to Fix and How
Understanding Ally Reports: What to Fix and How
Blackboard Ally is a great tool that can support accessibility efforts. Like any automated tool, there are limits to reaching ultimate accessibility. Ally is very good at finding many accessibility issues, but it is not a complete replacement for a good working knowledge of accessibility practices.
Getting Started
The dashboard and dials are explained on the Ally Overview tutorial page. This snapshot view is a good launch point for most activities.
Accessibility Resources
Ally can suggest ways to correct some issues, but sometimes Ally will report that guidance is coming. This can be frustrating to users depending on this level of assistance. You may review a variety of accessibility topics in the TN eCampus Knowledge Books. Specifically, Tips for Checking Accessibility (KB) is a good place to start.
Issues Checked with Ally
| Topics Checked | Ally Supports | Steps You Can Take |
| Page Language | Checks for missing language coding | These can be ignored. This is typically seen in older courses. These pages may not have updated templates. Contact your Instructional Designer for assistance. |
| Page Title | Checks for missing title | These can be ignored. This is typically seen in older courses. These pages may not have updated templates. Contact your Instructional Designer for assistance. |
| Content Headings | Checks for missing or empty headings. Offers some support for corrections. | Review course pages and files to confirm headings are applied instead of larger or bold fonts. |
| Color/Contrast | Checks for insufficient color and/or contrast. Offers some support for corrections. | Use the source software tool to select improvements that will meet WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. |
| Alternative Text | Checks for missing AltText. Cannot evaluate the quality of the text. Auto-generated text will cause Ally to skip images. Offers some support for corrections. | Evaluate the quality of previously added AltText, especially auto-text generated MS Word or PowerPoint and other programs. The original documents may have had a setting to automatically generate text, which can be worse than no text. |
| Video Captions | Checks for missing video captions. Ally can check video files for the presence of captions but it cannot evaluate the quality or the need for audio description. Links to videos hosted on a 3rd party sites are not checked or flagged for review. | Evaluate captions for videos that have them present. Auto captions are a fast start to quality but should not be depended on for compliance. Add captions if missing. |
| Scanned Images | Checks for scanned PDF document files or similar documents with undetectable text. Offers some support for corrections. | Test uploaded and 3rd party vendor content for readable text. Upload OCR corrected files to replace course documents. Work with vendors to provide updated documents or alternative resources. |
| Check presentation files | Checks for missing AltText, insufficient Color/Context. Offers some support for corrections. | Reading Order and embedded videos are not checked. The presentation software's accessibility checker may be useful. Manually check the reading order and the presence of edited video captions. |
Steps to Remediation
Remediation is not intended directly inside Ally. Ally will show you where the problem exists but you have to make those changes in the HTML file or upload a new source file with the corrections made. A simple way to manage live changes is to have the page or source file open in another browser window. Use the second window to make the corrections and save your work there.
False Positive
It is common to find large numbers of Brightspace course pages, that are largely accessible but flag the same issues in every file. These flagged items are often "false positive" reports.
- This HTML file does not have a language set
- This HTML file has no title
Checking an example, we see familiar errors.
(Remember to choose All Issues.)
Check Template
Assuming the Brightspace page template was used to create this page. There is a language and title set, but there is a coding issue in some course files that cause the false reports. These errors can be ignored for that reason. Contact your instruction designer if you suspect the problem is missing templates.
Contrast Example
In this example, the word with contrast issues is highlighted.
Contrast issues reported in Ally offer direct links to common program tutorials you may explore.
Alternative Text Example
Ally will locate images without Alternative Text.
Use Brightspace tools for adding text to images by clicking the image. A menu will open with the image properties icon. Use the open window to add text, size, or mark as decorative if appropriate. Files in other programs have similar options.
Alternative text should not exceed 125-150 characters. Use long text or a text supplement for images that require greater detail.
Scanned PDF Example
This is a scanned image, which is a Tennessee map with points listing all of the public and private colleges and universities in the state and it is 0% compliant. Ally has pointed out this is a document that needs review because it is only a scanned image.
Regardless of the purpose, the document is a blank page to some users. Unless this is decorative, maps pose one of the biggest challenges. A full-text replacement may be necessary if users are expected to study or research information from the map. This could be accomplished in a long text file or a table that groups schools by region or proximity. Again, it would depend on the purpose. The purpose here is to show a complex image and consider how to represent it in different scenarios. The details of the map are not relevant to the purpose.
You can choose the buttons, What this means and How to fix this to learn more from Ally on scanned images