2022 Blackboard Ally Open Labs

What is your +1 or next step towards making your Blackboard content more inclusive and accessible for your students?

During the Blackboard Ally open labs, we will be discovering some quick wins using Blackboard Ally as an accessibility testing tool and remediating items such as adding alt text to images and including titles to documents.

The functional definition of accessibility is to provide students with the opportunity to get the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as students without disabilities, with equivalent ease of use. Course content is not always accessible, but MC’s (Montgomery College) policy says when course content is not accessible to have a plan to work towards remediating course content.

Take the next step on your journey toward accessibility and get a sneak peek at how much students use alternate formats using Blackboard Ally.

We celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day by participating in Blackboard Fix your Content initiative with Blackboard Ally. Go into Blackboard and click on the orange and red gauges to tally up the fixes on the leaderboard while making your content more inclusive for students. Join the open lab on May 19^th and make a few fixes in the processes. You do not need to know anything about accessibility to participate. Just come join us and make some progress together.

What will I learn or do at open labs?

Outcomes:

Describe the role and limitations of Blackboard Ally, an Accessibility checker in a Blackboard environment.
Add Alt text to images in Blackboard items and Word documents.
Apply descriptive link text and lists in Blackboard items and Word documents.
Identify the next step(s) to make your course more inclusive.