Ally is a tool available within Brightspace D2L that improves the quality and usability of digital content every day for all students. It allows students to automatically access alternative file formats for existing instructional content, rather than faculty or Disability Services needing to initiate that process. Ally also provides feedback for faculty on the accessibility of course content with contextual guidance and support on how to correct issues.
A survey of Kishwaukee College faculty in 2019 indicated that support and guidance on making content accessible was a functionality greatly desired and missing from technology tools then available. Faculty desired to work towards making content accessible BEFORE they were notified of an impacted student in their courses by Disability Services, but did not know where to start. Ally meets this expressed faculty need and funding through the Title III grant has made the implementation possible.
Disability Services will continue to work in partnership with faculty to ensure the College meets its legal requirement to provide accessible course content to students. Ally will automatically create alternate accessible formats for students and support faculty in making small improvements that can have a big impact on accessibility. Disability Services will continue to support students and faculty.
With Ally, your files and pages in Brightspace are automatically more accessible because students can now access alternative formats of content.
These alternative formats can be generated:
No. Alternative formats are available to students by default without any action by the instructor.
Ally does not alter any of your files or Brightspace content. The original file stays in your LMS. Ally does not store a copy of the original documents and files or alter or delete them. It creates and provides alternate versions for students. It offers faulty some guided feedback on how to manually improve accessibility of their files and documents.
Ally will not create alternate formats or score the accessibility of third-party content, such as Person or Cengage linked assignments, YouTube links, or any links out to another source.
Once Ally is available in your Brightspace D2L course, a color-coded indicator will appear at the right of each content item or document file to indicate how accessible that piece of content is.
These color-coded indicators provide you with a starting point to make your content more accessible. Clicking on the color-coded Ally icon will provide instructions on how to address an accessibility issue. Many accessibility issues can be corrected within a minute or two, but some may require more effort or support from Disability Services. Simple fixes may include adding alternative text descriptions for images, or rescanning documents that were created by scanners that treat text as images. A red hazard indicator will appear for any instances of media that might trigger a seizure along with an option to remove the item.
No. Accessibility scores on files and pages in Brightspace are only visible to instructors within their own courses.
There is no institutional course accessibility score requirement. However, new federal law requires public schools, community colleges, and public universities to make their digital content accessible by April 2026. Ally will support Kishwaukee College in accomplishing this goal through the combined efforts of faculty, Instruction staff, and Disability Services.
Most video streaming platforms will automatically generate closed captions. Common streaming platforms used at Kishwaukee include Echo360, YouTube, and Brightspace. All of these options will generate automatic closed captions when a video is uploaded and the setting is enabled. See the tutorials at the links below for instructions on enabling the automatic generation of closed captions.