Question 1

Who should I contact with requests for advice and assistance with Ally?

Accepted Answer

Staff should contact the Learning technology Team (learningtech@wcs.ac.uk) to request advice and assistance with Ally.  Students should contact their tutor in the first instance.

Question 2

When can I use Ally?

Accepted Answer

Now. Ally was made available to staff and students on January 26th 2023.  Have a look at the dedicated Ally page on COLT to find out more about the service.

Question 3

What content types are checked by Ally?

Accepted Answer

Ally checks, reports and advises on the following content types when uploaded to Moodle:
PDF
Microsoft Word
PowerPoint
Open Office
Images.

Ally does not check:
Content hosted externally
MS Stream content
MS Teams
Work submitted by students.

Question 4

What are the most commonly reported and serious accessibility issues?

Accepted Answer

Moodle-wide content accessibility reports flag up the following issues as widespread and either severe or major:
Documents with contrast issues
Images without alternative-text
Documents with no headings
PDF documents that have been scanned as images rather than text
Videos without closed captions.

Within Moodle Ally explains why and how to fix these issues, however the Learning Technology team have created self-directed courses on Evolve that staff can undertake to gain a better understanding of accessibility and design of online and blended courses.
Accessibility of Online Learning 
Designing Digitally 
WCS Learning Standards

Question 5

Are there any videos to support staff & students in their use of Ally?

Accepted Answer

Yes.  A YouTube playlist of short videos has been curated for Ally.  We have also created a dedicated Ally page on COLT the Centre of Learning technology website.

Full playlist (5 videos)

Students
Alternative formats (45 secs)
BeeLine reader (32 secs)

Teachers
Overview for teachers (1 min 28 secs)
About alternative formats (56 secs)
File accessibility (1 min 6 secs)

Question 6

Can the playback speed of MP3 audio files be controlled?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Most players allow you to adjust playback speed. For example, Windows Media player, VIC, Audacity, and iTunes/Music.

Question 7

Which devices and apps can I use to view ePub files?

Accepted Answer

The ePub alternative creates a digital publishing file that can be viewed on mobile devices. ePub files are reflowable. Reflowable means that the content displayed automatically adapts to the device it is viewed on.

Here are a few suggested apps for ePubs:
Apple: EasyReader,  iBooks, Voice Dream,  NaturalReader, and Thorium Reader
Android: EasyReader,  Lithium and Voice Aloud Reader
Windows: Calibre, Icecream Ebook Reader,  NaturalReader, and Thorium Reader
Linux: Thorium Reader.

Question 8

How can I learn how to write effective alt-text for images?

Accepted Answer

The Poet tool is a great resource to learn when and how to describe effective alt-text for images.
There is also a useful decision chart to learn when to use alt-text.

Question 9

Are there any limitations?

Accepted Answer

Here are those we already know about:
The range and quality of the alternative formats can depend on the original file; and not all files can be transformed
Ally does not recognise or report on every example of inaccessible content.  For example, it may flag up the false positive of an image with an alternative description - but will not report on the quality of the description (see section above on how to write effective alt-text)
Audio files (MP3 format) can be created only for documents with fewer than 100 000 characters.
There are no credible research articles that confirm the claims made regarding the efficacy of the Beeline reader format
LaTeX PDFs score very lowly in the accessibility report because these are not tagged in such a way that screen readers can assist with them.  Additionally, the HTML alternative format may struggle to accurately reproduce some content, e.g., mathematical formulae.

CENTRE of LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

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