The Inclusion Games (ID Services OPEN): Activity Challenge: Having an Alliance with Ally

Description

In this 20-minute activity, you will learn about Ally and how to use the power of that plugin within your course site. This tool will help ensure the inclusivity of your course for all learners.

What you need

Access to a Moodle course with ALLY enabled.

ALLY Overview

Ally is a Moodle plugin system that identifies and helps make course documents and images more accessible. In our classes, we have a variety of students with varying learning abilities. Ally can provide alternative content in a variety of formats. When you have a document that is fairly accessible Ally can provide the following alternatives; a tagged PDF, an HTML version, audio versions, and even electronic braille. If you have documents that are not accessible, Ally explains why and gives you tips on how to fix them. In some cases, you can make changes directly through Ally.

Reference Videos

The following are videos that help explain what Ally is and how to use it.

Blackboard Ally for Courses (3 min)

How to view file accessibility with Ally in Moodle (~1min)

Note: Ally is automatically turned on in all Moodle courses. You do not need to do anything to activate it.

Alternative Formats (~1min)

Just another quick video on Alternative Formats.

Instructions

Before we begin the activity, let's see what the Ally Checker looks like in your courses.

Look at the images below to see a closeup of the Ally results (gauge). Students do not see the gauge. They only see the original document link and the Download options arrow.

If you were a teacher in this course, you would see a little gear icon to the right and you would also see the Alternative format icon. Check your course to see how Ally has assessed your materials.

Note: Only materials uploaded to Moodle will be assessed by Ally. Ally cannot assess materials linked outside of Moodle. This includes Google documents, slideshows, videos, etc.

The gauges

Red (or gauge pointing to the left) = Not accessible
Orange (or gauge pointing to the middle) = There are a few accessibility issues
Green (or gauge pointing to the right) = Fully accessible

Example:

The download function

Clicking on the down arrow icon will give you a variety of options for document formatting. [update - include that the document is not automatically accessible is the original was not]

Example:

Activity

Open one of your courses that contains several electronic documents such as PowerPoint, Word, or PDF.
1. The documents should be ones that were directly uploaded to Moodle.
2. Ally cannot run tests on documents or images that are linking to an outside source or webpage. This includes documents linked to Google Drive.
If you do not have any documents or images on your course page, please upload one or two.
1. They can be deleted after the exercise.
Scan your course to locate documents that show the Ally gauge next to them.
Check to see where the gauges are set.
1. Red or gauge to the left = Not accessible
2. Orange or gauge to the middle = There are a few accessibility issues
3. Green or gauge to the right = Fully accessible
Find a file that is Orange or Red and select the Accessibility score.
Follow the steps provided to go step-by-step through the improvement process.
Select All Issues to see every issue in the file and decide what issues to fix first.

In some cases, you can fix the issue within Ally. In other cases, you may need to find the original document to make the changes. PDFs can be tricky! Try this with 2-3 documents and images.

Submission

To enter the Accessibility raffle with this challenge:

Take a screenshot of the area in your course where you applied this exercise.
Click the submit button below and upload it.
Write a few sentences sharing how it went.
Submit your work.

Reflection

After completing this activity, take a few minutes to reflect on the importance of using Ally to check the accessibility of your content. How can this small step make a big difference in ensuring that your Moodle course is accessible for all users, regardless of their abilities? How can you apply this knowledge to other aspects of your online teaching and content creation?