Ally

Ally Pilot

Cal State LA has launched a limited pilot of Ally in the Canvas LMS. The pilot began in Fall 2020 within the Charter College of Education Rehabilitation Counseling program.

Information for Faculty

Ally is a tool that integrates seamlessly into the Canvas LMS. Ally instantly gauges the accessibility of your uploaded course content, such as Word documents, PowerPoint, and PDFs. There are two main components to the Ally tool:

  • Instructor feedback on the accessibility of digital content, including step-by-step instructions to remediate accessibility barriers
  • Students are able to select an alternate, more accessible version of your course content instantaneously

Ally is first and foremost an awareness tool for faculty. In addition, faculty can leverage Ally to improve the accessibility of their course content over time. Instructors learn about the accessibility of thier course content at-a-glance with the color-coded indicators next to each file:

Ally accessibility gauges. Red, orange, green; low, medium, high.

Which content does Ally check for Accessibility?

Currently, Ally checks files in these formats:

  • PDF files
  • Microsoft® Word files
  • Microsoft® PowerPoint® files
  • OpenOffice/LibreOffice files
  • Uploaded HTML files
  • Image files (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BPM, TIFF)
  • YouTubeTM videos embedded in WYSIWYG/VTBE content

Self-Help Resources for Faculty

For a comprehensive guide to Ally visit the instructor resource page

Information for Students

As a student in a course that has Ally enabled, you can access alternative formats of digital content. Next to each file in your Canvas course is a drop-down menu that will allow you to instantly create an alternate format of course materials.

Ally drop down to access alternative formats in Canvas

Ally alternate formats; tagged PDF, HTML, ePub, e-braille, BeeLine Reader

What alternative formats does Ally generate?

Ally provides alternative formats for these file types:

  • PDF files
  • Microsoft® Word files
  • Microsoft® Powerpoint® files
  • OpenOffice/LibreOffice files
  • Uploaded HTML files

These alternative formats can be generated:

  • OCR’d version (for scanned documents)
  • Tagged PDF (currently for Word, Powerpoint and OpenOffice/LibreOffice files)
  • Mobile-friendly HTML
  • Audio
  • ePub
  • Electronic Braille
  • BeeLine Reader
  • Language translated version