Ally is a tool offered at Cornell to help you make your online course materials more accessible. Directly integrated into Canvas, Ally checks your course content. It then provides you with a report rating the accessibility of the various components of your course. Moreover, Ally can suggest ways to make content more accessible. Without any effort by the faculty, Ally also allows students to automatically generate alternative formats for many course materials.

When viewing your Canvas course, you will see an accessibility score indicator (next to the “published” checkmark) for most course materials (including unpublished materials). This indicator gives you a score for each item; clicking on the indicator will display any issues identified with the item and provide some guidance to improve the accessibility of that item. It is not uncommon to see a large number of items in the “red zone”.

You can also add an “Accessibility Report” link to your course navigation. The report will provide an overall analysis of your course and a prioritized list of issues to address.

NOTE: Students do not see the accessibility reports or indicators in your course. 

Ally Training Videos & Resources

The best way to learn how to use Ally is through Anthology's current instructor resources. We recommend starting with the Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series, which provides short, focused tutorials on the most common Ally features and workflows. You can also use the Instructor Accessibility Checklist for practical, step-by-step guidance on improving the accessibility of your course materials.

These resources cover topics such as:

• Understanding accessibility scores and indicators
• Using the Accessibility Report
• Improving documents, PDFs, and images
• Adding alternative text
• Supporting students with alternative file formats

Please contact us with any questions or for further information.