Ally

Ally has two uses, to

• analyse documents and help the teacher make them accessible
• convert documents for the students into formats that suit them.

How to start using Ally

Ally is integrated into Canvas and already analyses all the material you upload. That said, you are only responsible for material that you produce yourself, not documents from other sources.  

As a teacher, you can find Ally by looking at the colourful icons under ‘accessibility’ that appear next to your file. When you click on the icon, Ally will tell you how accessible the document is and ways to improve this. You must fix the deficiencies yourself and then upload the file again.

How Ally works for students

Once you have adapted your material, depending on the file format you use, Ally can generate formats that are suitable for students, such as

• audio
• e-publication
• electronic Braille
• tagged PDF
• mobile-friendly HTML
• BeeLine Reader
• OCR (optical character recognition for scanned documents)

If you want to let your students know about the possibilities Ally offers, you can link to the section about Ally in the student guide.

Using Ally – canvas.education.lu.se

Do you need to adapt all documents?

You have a legal obligation to make the documents you create and post on Canvas accessible. We know this can involve large amounts of material, so focus on the new documents and the ones you reuse in your courses.

Which laws apply? The DOS Act (Act on Access to Digital Public Services) applies to digital spaces that can be accessed without logging in, but all digital spaces are covered by the Discrimination Act. This is because a lack of accessibility is a form of discrimination.

Fixing everything is a long-term process. You don't need to start adapting old documents straight away, but it's important that you have a plan for the work.