Professional Development

September 18, 2026

Ally in Practice Recap

# Accessibility

# Ally

Building Your Accessibility Strategy as an Instructor

Katie Grennell, PhD.

Ally in Practice Recap: Building your Accessibility Strategy as an Instructor

September 16th, 2026

Ally in Practice is our new monthly enablement series, alternating between sessions for instructors and sessions for administrators. We kicked things off—right as everyone's back to school—with a session built for instructors: Prioritizing Accessibility Improvements for Instructors. Thank you to everyone who joined live and brought such great energy to our inaugural session!

Missed the live session? Here's the recap, plus every resource mentioned along the way.

A little Stevie Wonder set the tone at the start, since the session was as much about heart as it was about strategy.

Why Accessibility Matters (and What Ally Actually Does)

We began the session with the “why”: accessibility is the right thing to do, it gives learners more autonomy, it removes barriers, it improves the experience for everyone (not just disabled learners), and, yes, it's the law (Title II of the ADA in the U.S., with additional state- and country-specific regulations elsewhere).

For anyone newer to the tool, Ally is a digital accessibility tool embedded in your LMS, and it's LMS-agnostic-it works across Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Schoology. Ally supports three different groups of end users:

Students get automatically generated alternative formats of instructor-uploaded/created LMS content, such as ePub, Electronic Braille, or Audio files, with open access to ALL students.

Instructors get a list of identified accessibility issues found in their digital course content, and feedback that explains what the issues mean, why fixing them matters, and how to fix them.

Administrators get usage data and insights to track accessibility progress across the institution.

Ally's approach is intentionally human-centered , there are no “magic buttons” automatically remediating your content. A human stays in the loop for fixes like alt text, since context (why this image, in this place) isn't something an automated tool can fully know.

Building your Strategy: Goals and Priorities

The core of the session focused on how instructors can approach remediation without feeling overwhelmed. A few key mantras:

Progress over perfection. Two fixes today is still progress. Accessibility work is a marathon, not a sprint.

Every fix matters. Even adding alt text to one image can take that image's score from a 25% to 100%-and that's a real, equitable difference for a student using a screen reader.

Ally is a guide on the side. You're not expected to do this alone. Ally flags the issues for you, explains them, and shows you how to fix them, working alongside you and building your skills over time.

For instructors looking for a concrete starting point, here are four entry paths:

Set a specific goal (e.g., raise your Ally score by 10% this semester).

Start from your Course Accessibility Report if you don't have a goal yet.

Prioritize high-impact content (syllabi, first-week materials) and high-enrollment courses.

Look for quick wins using tools like PDF quick fixes and the AI alt text assistant.

The Course Accessibility Report (CAR): Three Guided Approaches

The CAR gives each course an overall score plus a content-type breakdown, and offers three guided remediation paths: content items with the easiest issues to fix, fix the lowest-scoring content, and a filterable view of remaining issues. These guided remediation approaches are lists Ally generates for each course, for each instructor, based on the issues specifically found in that course and can be used as a springboard for remediation work.

Scenario	Suggested approach
Want to fix as many issues as possible, quickly	Easiest issues to fix
Want your overall score to climb as fast as possible	Fix the lowest-scoring content (severe issues, e.g. a scanned PDF at 0%)
Want to target a specific issue type (like missing image descriptions)	Filterable view of all remaining issues
Short on time or new to accessibility	Easiest issues to fix
Want to address the highest-risk issues first	Lowest-scoring content, filtered by severity (severe/major/minor)

Live Demo: PDF Quick Fixes and Auto-Tagging

The session included a live demo of PDF remediation, including the auto-tagging quick fix (first launched with three quick fixes in August 2025). In the demo, auto-tagging took a PDF from a 6% (severe/red) score to 48% by generating and approving tags, with the option to download the original, untouched file first if you want a copy on hand.

Support and Resources

Resources shared were organized two ways: by feature, and by topic.

By feature

Course Accessibility Report — Course Accessibility Report (Ally Support Article, Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series (there is an orientation video on the CAR and how to use the CAR to strategize remediation).

PDF quick fixes — support articles: PDF Remediation Options (Ally Support Article for Instructors) and Scanned PDFs (Ally Support Article), plus a short microlearning video for every individual quick fix: Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series

AI alt text assistant — documentation on adding descriptions: Add Image Descriptions (Ally Support Article for Instructors), and a microlearning video on handling different image types: Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series.

By Topic-Peer Networking

Ally User Group — global user community, meets bi-monthly (next session: Thursday, Sept 24, 10am ET).

Ally Office Hours — monthly, led by Chris Aldin (Director of Product); next session Monday, Oct 12^th at 11:00am ET.

Blackboard Community — the official hub for peer discussions, product updates, and shared resources across all Blackboard products; create a free account and follow the ones your institution uses.

By Topic-Documentation and Technical Support

Blackboard Technical Support Portal — access is typically limited to a handful of designated Ally admins per institution, who can submit tickets on behalf of others.

Ally Help Site — comprehensive, central repository for Ally: instructional how-to's, product information, and additional resources like videos and the Communication and Adoption Toolkit.

By Topic-Instructor Resources

Curated training resource lists, organized by topic and by LMS: Ally Training Resources for Instructors using Blackboard , Ally Training Resources for Instructors using D2L Brightspace , Ally Training Resources for Instructors using Canvas , Ally Training Resources for Instructors using Moodle .

Promoting Alternative Formats to Students — a blog post with ready-to-use messaging templates you can drop straight into an LMS announcement or email, organized by use case, from specific disability types to broader universal design scenarios.

By Topic-Product Engagement

Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series

Ally in Practice (this series!) Community blog post introducing the series: Introducing Ally in Practice ; session topics, dates, and registration links are updated monthly in the Community.

Ally Communication and Adoption Toolkit : ready-to-use resources for building awareness and buy-in on your campus, including syllabus statements, messaging templates, and other communication materials to help increase adoption.

Ally Product Pulse: a monthly roundup of Ally news and releases, with a new edition posted to the community each month, Ally Product Pulse – September Edition.

Ally Roadmap sessions: held ~twice a year; recaps, slide decks, and recordings available in the community: Blackboard Ally Roadmap: August 2026 Recap blog post, Ally Roadmap (August 2026) Slide Deck , Ally Roadmap (August 2026) Recording .

What's Next

Ally in Practice, Session 2: An Administrator's Guide to Institutional Reporting and Remediation Prioritization — Tuesday, Oct 20, offered at two times to accommodate time zones. Registration: Ally in Practice Option 1 (10:00-11:00am ET) Registration Link , Ally in Practice Option 2 (2:00-3:00pm ET) Registration Link.