Ally for Staff

Ally provides extra accessibility support for using or uploading learning materials within the VLE, providing staff advice on how to improve the accessibility of those materials and allowing students to download or access them in alternative formats. Ally will be automatically available in any Learn Ultra Courses created after the 28th of April 2023 and builds on the accessibility support we already provide.

Our guide covers all of the main aspects of using Ally in Learn for staff (file will download to your device):

What feedback does Ally provide to staff? 

When an instructor uploads a file or creates a document in Learn, Ally will check it and provide an indicative accessibility score which is displayed inline. The accessibility score is based on WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidance (which is what most international accessibility regulations are based on) as well as additional quality and usability checks. 

The accessibility score provides a high-level indication, with the different possibilities outline below: 

• Low (red icon): File is not accessible and needs immediate attention. 
• Medium (orange icon): File is somewhat accessible and could use improvement. 
•  High (light green icon): File is accessible but could be improved. 
• Perfect (dark green icon): File is accessible. Although Ally didn't identify any accessibility issues, further improvements may still be possible.

Selecting the accessibility score will load an Ally overlay which provides the following information about the file or document:

• An explanation for the score;
• Provision of feedback and instruction on how to improve the accessibility of the content.  
• Instructors can follow the instructions and upload a revised version to improve the accessibility of the content and the accessibility score. This can often be done inline, making the task simpler.

Course Reports

Instructors can access course level reports via the 'Content market' or 'Books and Tools' functionality within an Ultra course. Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) will update this webpage with advice and guidance as we investigate Ally School/Deanery level reporting functionality over the summer of 2023.