Teaching center looking for volunteers to pilot digital accessibility program

Ally logo

The University Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion are looking for Pitt instructors to pilot Ally in Blackboard this fall.

Ally provides guidance on how to correct accessibility issues with digital course content — making learning materials work better with assistive technologies for students with disabilities as well as on mobile phones and tablets. Ally, which is embedded directly into Blackboard, identifies the accessibility of content within a course, alerts the instructor to accessibility issues, and then suggests alternative accessible formats of content.

The pilot group will provide feedback about the effectiveness of Ally — how well it checks the accessibility of content and provides guidance on how to fix the identified accessibility issues.

To sign up for the pilot, please fill out this form. Five-day training sessions will be held each week in August starting Aug. 5.

While the pilot is for Ally within Blackboard, it also works well with Canvas, according to the Center for Teaching and Learning. The University is preparing to switch to Canvas in summer 2020. This fall, 85 faculty members from every Pitt campus will participate in an early adopter program of Canvas. Find details of the transition here.