Using Ally to Meet Upcoming Title II Accessibility Requirements
As institutions prepare for the upcoming ADA Title II accessibility updates, faculty play a vital role in ensuring that digital learning environments are free from discrimination and compliant with federal requirements. While these new standards have been established since 2024, we will now be required by law to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA for all digital course materials by April of this year.
To support this important work, Lamar University is leveraging the Anthology Ally tool, an integrated accessibility solution that helps instructors identify, understand, and remediate accessibility barriers directly within Blackboard.
Ally Overview Video Series
Our first resource for faculty is this comprehensive video guide series by Edgar Gonzalez. This five part series starts by exploring the basics of Ally before diving into its most powerful features. Whether you're brand new to using Ally or a seasoned designer, this series can help elevate and optimize your revision workflow.
Why Ally Matters for Title II Compliance
The easiest way to ensure compliance with Title II is to achieve 100% in the Ally tool. It supports preparation efforts by providing real-time accessibility scores, guided remediation steps, alternative formats, course accessibility reports, and AI-driven alt text assistance.
Now, you can technically be WCAG 2.1, AA compliant at a threshold of 67% - 99%, assuming you have met all of their specific standards. The issue comes in the fact that you would then have to cross reference the issues reported in your content items with the aforementioned standards. This is a time consuming and rather tedious process, which is why we suggest shooting for 100% in the Ally platform, as this will ensure compliance.
Next Steps and Quick Wins
While fixing an entire course may seem daunting, there are a number of quick and easy steps that can make the process more manageable.
- Remove any unused or irrelevant files from your course. Even documents hidden from students will be assessed when checking for compliance.
- Convert or recreate short form PDF files into authentic Blackboard content. This is especially helpful for assignment instructions or quick reference guides.
- For publisher/vendor content, request compliant materials. You can also link out to them rather than re-uploading them into your course.
Additional Resources
And finally, we have a collection of additional resources that faculty can use to learn more and to supplement their revision process.
Accessibility Strategies to Address the Impact of
ADA Title II Updates
An on-demand webinar by Anthology
From Compliance to Culture: Building a Sustainable Accessibility Strategy
An on-demand webinar by Anthology
Introduction to Ally
- About Ally and Accessibility: support article that provides a brief overview of why accessibility matters, and what Ally is.
- Ally for Blackboard Ultra: video that provides an overview of Ally for instructors.
- How Ally Looks in your Course: to provide visual awareness of where the different features of Ally are typically located.
Alternative Formats
- Choose your own Alternative Format: video that explains how to download alternative formats in Blackboard. Remember that alternative formats are also available to instructors!
- Alternative Formats: link to a support article that includes the video above and a description of the alternative formats feature.
- Alternative Formats FAQ: support article that walks through commonly asked questions referring to alternative formats.
Communication
- Positioning Ally: this is taken from Ally’s Communication and Adoption Toolkit, a collection of resources designed to help administrators and instructors strengthen their adoption of Ally. This page walks through suggestions for how to talk about Ally to different audiences.
- Faculty Adoption: also part of the toolkit mentioned above, this has a variety of resources to use in communication with faculty, such as sample syllabus statements, student use cases of alternative formats, community stories and case studies from other Ally institutions.
- Communication Resources: also included in the toolkit, this section includes messaging templates for instructors, as well as PowerPoint presentations that instructors can use when introducing their students to Ally’s alternative formats. Additionally, there are PPTs that administrators can use when they are working with faculty on using Ally.
Instructor Feedback
- Ally Accessibility Scores: support article including information on Ally’s accessibility scores, including the types of content Ally checks and the score ranges.
- Feedback for Specific Files: support article that provides guidance on how to access the Instructor Feedback panel and use the guidance provided.
- PDF Quick Fixes: support article walking through our new PDF quick fixes that address 3 common PDF accessibility issues: scanned PDFs, missing language set, and missing title.
- Improving Content Accessibility: includes best practices for creating accessible content, such as fixing broken links, adding headers to documents, etc.
- Instructor FAQs for Ally: comprehensive FAQ of common questions asked by instructors using Ally.
- Using Ally to address WYSIWYG Accessibility: WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get and refers to the content built directly into Blackboard using the rich content editor. This comprehensive support page walks through how to do this, including a helpful video and breakdown of WYSIWYG content supported in Blackboard.
Course Accessibility Report
- Course Accessibility Report: support article that describes the Course Accessibility Report, how to find it, and what it entails. The CAR includes 3 guided remediation approaches to help instructors determine a remediation approach.
Special Features
- AI Alt Text Assistant: support article that provides information on how to use the AI Alt Text Assistant, which uses AI to generate alternative format suggestions for images that have been uploaded as a standalone image/file (not embedded in anything else), or images that have been embedded in WYSIWYG content.
- AI, Accessibility, and the Risk of Easy Answers: Why Human Oversight Still Matters: blog article that provides information on the purpose of Alt Text for images and how to critically evaluate the suggested output of the AI Alt Text Assistant.
Moving Toward a Culture of Accessibility
Preparing for Title II compliance isn’t just about meeting a regulatory deadline: it’s an opportunity to deepen our commitment to learning. Ally empowers instructors to create more accessible, flexible, and student-centered courses.