Professional Development
October 20, 2026
Ally in Practice Recap
# Accessibility
# Ally
An Administrator's Guide to Institutional Reporting and Remediation Prioritization
Katie Grennell, PhD.
Ally in Practice Recap: An Administrator's Guide to Institutional Reporting and Remediation Prioritization
Ally in Practice, our monthly enablement series, is back for session two! After kicking things off in September with a session built for instructors, we turned the spotlight to our administrators with An Administrator’s Guide to Institutional Reporting and Remediation Prioritization. The timing couldn’t be better, with Fix Your Content Day just around the corner. Thank you to everyone who joined live! This series started as just an idea, and your response has been phenomenal.
Missed the live session? Here’s the recap, including every resource mentioned along the way.
Start with your Baseline
The Overview tab shows your overall score, a weighted average of your files and WYSIWYG scores. Treat it as a starting point, not a grade, and share the trend so instructors see their impact. Before promoting any feature, check your Ally configuration, because some features are off by default.
Four Data Points to Look For
For this session, I put my strategist hat back on. Together, we looked through the institutional report for four specific data points you can act on right away. For each one, I shared an example goal, suggested strategies to reach it, and the resources to back you up, so you don’t have to start from scratch. Three of the data points live in the accessibility issues list at the bottom of the Overview tab, and the fourth is in the Usage tab. All figures come from our demo instance, never a school’s data.
Data point | What to look for and where to find it | Example goals |
Most severe issues | In the overview tab, look for the list of accessibility issues and locate the severe issue affecting the most content. In the demo, the top issue was 377 scanned PDFs not OCRed. |
|
Issues that can be addressed with PDF Quick Fixes | Look for the following issues in your list of accessibility issues: the document contains images that are missing descriptions, the document is missing a title, the document is missing a language set, the document is untagged, and the document is scanned and not OCRed. |
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Issues that can be addressed with AI Alt Text Assistant | Look for the following issues in your list of accessibility issues: images missing a description (standalone image), the HTML content contains images without a description (images embedded in WYSIWG content), and the document contains images without a description (images embedded in PDFs-just released!). |
|
Instructor fixes usage data | Navigate to the usage tab in your Institutional Report, specific the time frame you wish to see the data for, and look at the number of fixes made by instructors. The demo showed 1,000+ fixes in 12 months. |
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Suggested Strategies for all 4 data points
- Most Severe Issue
- Promote the OCR quick fix in your instructor outreach.
- Offer workshops or one-on-one sessions focused on the OCR quick fix.
- Create a static resource, like an FAQ or cheat sheet, on using the quick fix.
- Add links to trainings you already have scheduled, including the microlearning video on why OCR matters and how to fix it.
- Export the course list, find the courses with the most scanned PDFs and reach out to those instructors with support, not as a penalty.
- Use Fix Your Content Day to get a big share done.
- Celebrate milestones, like 100 and then 200 PDFs, and share the data that shows the effort.
- Resources:
- PDF quick fixes
- Turn on the auto-tagging quick fix in your Ally configuration. It’s off by default.
- Show instructors how to review and approve tags before applying them.
- Set up a hands-on PDF station for Fix Your Content Day.
- Track untagged PDFs in the issues list each month.
- Start with the general education courses that reach the most students.
- Demonstrate the title and language quick fixes and share the resources with instructors.
- Celebrate each course as it’s finished.
- Resources:
- AI Alt Text Assistant
- Highlight the new support for images in PDFs.
- Show instructors how it works and remind them they’re in control. Nothing is applied automatically, and they can edit, remove or skip any suggestion.
- Point instructors to the microlearning videos so you don’t have to run every demo yourself.
- Track missing descriptions in the issues list each month.
- Offer targeted trainings and one-on-one consultations.
- Add links to the image description and AI Alt Text Assistant support articles in any resource hub you already have.
- Demo the assistant at a Fix Your Content Day event, in person or online.
- Share a short how-to with ready-made messaging.
- Celebrate early adopters and invite them to share their experience. Faculty listen to faculty.
- Resources:
- Instructor fixes
- Time outreach to the start of term and to before midterms, when fixes tend to slow.
- Share quick fix how-to's in newsletters, resource hubs, meetings and trainings you already run.
- Recognize departments and instructors making progress. Usage data shows fixes by course, so pair it with your SIS data to find the instructors.
- Offer trainings or one-on-one sessions, and bring in accessibility champions.
- Invite instructors to Fix Your Content Day ahead of time using messaging from the communications pack.
- Offer drop-in support on Fix Your Content Day so instructors can fix content with help on hand.
- Share the final count and celebrate the win.
- Resources:
Setting Goals and building your Strategy
Once you’ve found your data points, the next step is turning them into goals you can actually reach. There’s no one-size-fits-all here. The right goals depend on what you’re hoping to accomplish, the resources you have and the time you have. Whether you choose one goal or three, keep progress over perfection in mind and celebrate the wins, big or small.
Set Goals that stick
Once you’ve found your data points, the next step is turning them into goals you can actually reach. There’s no one-size-fits-all here. The right goals depend on what you’re hoping to accomplish, the resources you have and the time you have. Whether you choose one goal or three, keep progress over perfection in mind and celebrate the wins, big or small.
Set goals that stick
- Start with one data point. Pick a single issue from your report. You don’t have to tackle everything at once.
- Make it specific and measurable. “Make all our content accessible” isn’t realistic. Make it smaller and digestible, then build from there.
- Set a deadline. Name the term or date you’re aiming for.
- Pair big goals with small ones. Small wins keep the momentum and excitement going between larger milestones.
Build your Strategy
- Know your goal. Keep it front and center as you plan.
- Know who you need. Whose buy-in and involvement does this goal depend on? How can you support instructors and make the work feel manageable?
- Pick your moments. Start of term, before midterms and events like Fix Your Content Day work well. The last day of the semester doesn’t.
- Track and share. Check your reports, celebrate progress and share wins with all your stakeholders. That means leadership and academic administrators, but also faculty, instructors and students.
To keep it all in one place, use the Strategy Template from the Administrator Adoption Strategy Guide, part of the Communication and Adoption Toolkit. Remove any columns you don’t need.
Ally Support & Resources
- Peer Networking
- Ally User Group
- Instructional Documentation
- Ally Help Site
- Instructor Resources
- Product Engagement
- Ally in Practice sessions: check the Blackboard Community for previous recordings and recaps!
- Ally Roadmap sessions: check the Blackboard Community to access previous Ally roadmap sessions.
Upcoming Events
- Fix Your Content Day 2026: join us on Tuesday, November 10th for our seventh FYCD competition! FYCD 2026 Registration Link
- Ally in Practice: Promoting Alternative formats to Students. Our next session gives instructors practical ways to promote Blackboard Ally’s Alternative Formats to students. These formats are already in your course but often go unused. You’ll leave with student use cases, promotional content, sample syllabus statements, and tips for reminding students at key moments like exam prep. Join us on Monday, November 16th.
- 10:00-11:00 am ET: Ally in Practice (November 16th) Option 1 Registration Link
- 2:00-3:00 pm ET: Ally in Practice (November 16th) Option 2 Registration Link
- Building Blackboard Together 2027 is coming to San Francisco, California! The conference will be held July 13th-15th. To register, visit https://conference.blackboard.com/ .
- Join us on Monday, November 9th at 11:00 am ET for the next Ally Office Hours .
- The Ally User Group will next meet on Thursday, November 19th at 10:00am ET. To register, visit https://connect.blackboard.com/blackboard-office-hours .
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