Ally Training Resources for Instructors Using Blackboard

# Accessibility

# Ally

Practical support for Ally in Blackboard

Katie Grennell, PhD.

Ally Training Resources for Instructors Using Blackboard

This collection of training and adoption resources is designed for instructors who use Blackboard as their learning management system and have Ally enabled in their courses. The guide provides a curated list of articles, documentation, videos, and other resources from the Ally Help site, organized by topic for easy navigation. Whether you're getting started with Ally, improving course content, or exploring accessibility best practices, the sections below can help you quickly find the information most relevant to your needs and support the creation of more inclusive learning experiences for all students.

Ally is LMS-agnostic and supports integration with all major learning management systems. Don't be concerned if a resource doesn't specifically reference your institution's LMS. The core Ally functionality and accessibility workflows are consistent across platforms. Differences are typically limited to LMS-specific navigation, such as where Ally indicators appear, how to access the Course Accessibility Report, or how course content is organized within the LMS.

Please note that Ally and its supporting resources continue to evolve. We will update this guide regularly to reflect new features, documentation, and recommended practices as they become available.

Last updated: August 2026

Ally in Practice

Ally in Practice is a free enablement series designed to help educators make the most of Ally through practical guidance, strategic recommendations, and real-world examples. Each session is tailored to either instructors and faculty or administrators, focusing on the topics most relevant to their role. The first session, Prioritizing Accessibility Improvements for Instructors, focuses on using Ally’s indicators, feedback, and Course Accessibility Report to identify and prioritize changes that have the greatest impact on learners. is designed for instructors and is open to all experience levels. Sessions alternate between instructor- and administrator-focused topics, so be sure to check the Community each month for upcoming offerings and target audiences.

Date: September 16th, 2026

·Register here for Ally in Practice Option 1 from 10:00-11:00am ET or Ally in Practice Option 2 from 2:00-3:00pm ET.

Training categories

Foundational/Introduction to Ally: Learn the basics of Ally, including what it is, how it supports accessibility and inclusion, and how it integrates with Blackboard. These resources provide a starting point for understanding Ally's features and benefits for both instructors and students.

About Ally and Accessibility : support article that provides a brief overview of why accessibility matters, and what Ally is.

Ally for Blackboard Ultra : video that provides an overview of Ally for instructors.

How Ally Looks in your Course : to provide visual awareness of where the different features of Ally are typically located.

Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series : series of short, instructional videos for instructors and faculty.

Alternative Formats: Explore the alternative formats available through Ally and learn how they can support a wide range of learning preferences, study habits, and accessibility needs. While alternative formats are often discussed as a student-facing feature, they are also available to instructors, allowing them to experience course content from different perspectives, review content accessibility, and better understand the benefits these formats provide.

Choose your own Alternative Format for Blackboard Learn Video : video that explains how to download alternative formats in Blackboard. Remember that alternative formats are also available to instructors!

Alternative Formats : link to a support article that includes the video above and a description of the alternative formats feature.

Alternative Formats FAQ : support article that walks through commonly asked questions referring to alternative formats.

Instructor Feedback: Understand how Ally evaluates course content and provides accessibility feedback. These resources explain accessibility indicators, instructor feedback workflows, and how to use Ally's guidance to improve course materials.

Ally's Accessibility Scores : support article including information on Ally’s accessibility scores, including the types of content Ally checks and the score ranges.

Using Instructor Feedback to check the accessibility of individual files : support article that provides guidance on how to access the Instructor Feedback panel and use the guidance provided.

PDF Quick fixes : support article walking through our new PDF quick fixes that address 4 common PDF accessibility issues: scanned PDFs, untagged PDFs, missing language set, and missing title.

Improving content Accessibility using Ally : includes best practices for creating accessible content, such as fixing broken links, adding headers to documents, etc.

Instructor FAQs for Ally : comprehensive FAQ of common questions asked by instructors using Ally.

Using Ally to address WYSIWYG accessibility : WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get and refers to the content built directly into Blackboard using the rich content editor. This comprehensive support page walks through how to do this, including a helpful video and breakdown of WYSIWYG content supported in Blackboard.

Course Accessibility Report: Learn how to use the Course Accessibility Report to gain insight into the overall accessibility of your course content. Resources in this section explain report metrics, issue prioritization, and strategies for tracking and improving accessibility over time.

Course Accessibility Report : support article that describes the Course Accessibility Report, how to find it, and what it entails. The CAR includes 3 guided remediation approaches to help instructors determine a remediation approach.

Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series : in this series, there are 2 videos focused on the Course Accessibility Report, Getting Started with Accessibility using Ally's Course Accessibility Report and Strategically Prioritizing Accessibility using the Course Accessibility Report.

Special Features

AI Alt Text Assistant : support article that provides information on how to use the AI Alt Text Assistant, which uses AI to generate alternative format suggestions for images that have been uploaded as a standalone image/file (not embedded in anything else), or images that have been embedded in WYSIWYG content.

PDF Quick Fixes

Key Facts about Auto-Tagging : support documentation that provides key facts on PDF Auto-Tagging Quick Fix.

Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series : check out our videos on PDF Accessibility Challenges for Instructors & Learners and how to use the PDF Quick Fixes.

Communication: Find resources to help communicate with students and colleagues about Ally, accessibility, and alternative formats. This section includes messaging guidance, communication strategies, and materials that can help promote awareness and adoption.

Positioning Ally : this is taken from Ally’s Communication and Adoption Toolkit, a collection of resources designed to help administrators and instructors strengthen their adoption of Ally. This page walks through suggestions for how to talk about Ally to different audiences.

Faculty Adoption : also part of the toolkit mentioned above, this has a variety of resources to use in communication with faculty, such as sample syllabus statements, student use cases of alternative formats, community stories and case studies from other Ally institutions.

Communication resources : also included in the toolkit, this section includes messaging templates for instructors, as well as PowerPoint presentations that instructors can use when introducing their students to Ally’s alternative formats. Additionally, there are PPTs that administrators can use when they are working with faculty on using Ally.

Ally Support & Resources: Access additional support materials, documentation, training opportunities, and community resources. This section serves as a central location for finding help, staying informed, and continuing your Ally journey.

Ally User Group : community of global Ally users that meet every 2 months and maintain an online discussion forum. Anyone can join! It is a wonderful and passionate community.

Ally Office Hours Registration : our product and development team host office hours every month. Here they will lead demonstrations of new releases, talk through any roadmap items pertinent, share any new content or resources, and answer questions. Participants can even submit questions ahead of time at Ally Office Hours Submit Questions Form . Everyone is welcome!

Blackboard Community : collaborative platform of global Blackboard users that offers discussion forums, blogs, user groups, etc. You can search for Ally-specific content by logging in, navigating to the content option in the main toolbar, and selecting Ally as the filter you want to search by.