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Feedback Panel

Open the feedback panel

Ally provides you detailed feedback and support to help you become an accessibility pro. Blackboard LMS about accessibility issues, why they matter, and how to fix them. Green is the goal!

After you upload files in your course, Ally produces an accessibility score for each file. In lessons with multiple files, the accessibility score is shown for each file. In areas where you access files, the accessibility icon is located to the right or left of the file.

Select the Accessibility score to open the feedback panel.

An Ally accessibility score gauge with the tooltip text "Accessibility score: Low Click to improve" showing above it.

Ally’s feedback panel shows you a preview of the document’s content as well as detailed feedback and support to help you fix your accessibility issues.

A page on the left with an image highlighted, and a panel on the right with a gauge showing 27% and the text "This document contains images that are missing a description." There are buttons that say "What this means" and "How to add descriptions."

Preview the document

The instructor feedback, in-browser, preview shows the content for PDFs, Word documents and PowerPoint documents.

A page on the left highlighted with an orange box. A panel on the left shows the accessibility score for the content.

Highlights

The preview highlights where specific accessibility issues can be found in the document. Highlights show every occurrence of one issue type at a time. For example, if your images are missing alternative descriptions, the highlights show you every place this specific issue occurs. If your document also has poor text contrast, select that issue in the feedback panel to see the occurrences of that issue highlighted.

Highlights are provided for these issues:

  • Images without an appropriate alternative description

  • Text fragments with insufficient contrast

  • Tables without table headers

Note

All other accessibility issues are not highlighted in the preview.

A page on the left with an image highlighted, and a panel on the right with a gauge showing 27% and the text "This document contains images that are missing a description." There are buttons that say "What this means" and "How to add descriptions."

Missing text description

A page on the left that with two headings highlighted. A panel on the right says "How to change text with insufficient contrast" with step-by-step instructions on how to change text color.

Text contrast

The pages of a scanned PDF on the left. The accessibility score panel on the right.

Scanned PDF

Preview tools

Preview toolbar showing page navigation, issue count and navigation arrows, highlight toggle, zoom controls, and a download button.

Use the tools above the preview to explore the issues in your document.

  • Move through the document preview page by page.

  • See how many times a specific issue appears in the document.

  • Jump between the issue highlights.

  • Hide or show the highlights.

  • Zoom the preview content in or out.

  • Download the original file.

Step-by-step guidance

For accessible files, Ally tells you what you did correctly. For files with Low to High scores, Ally shows you the issues and gives a step-by-step guide on how to fix them.

A gauge reading 7% denoted by an A. A button to show All Issues denoted by a B. Buttons for "What this means" and "How to add descriptions" denoted by a C. A place to drag and drop or browse to select an updated version denoted by a D.

  1. Accessibility score: See the overall score for the entire file.

  2. All issues: Select All issues to see every issue in the file. This view shows you by how much the score can improve by fixing each issue. Find the issue you want to start fixing and select Fix.

    The All Issues button selected and a list of issues below it, each with a Fix button next to it.

  3. Description of issue and step-by-step help: See the description for an issue with the file. Ally organizes this feedback in a decision tree, so all you need to do is read the directions and respond to the prompts. Blackboard LMS what the issue is, why it matters, and how to correct it appropriately.

    • Select What this means to learn more about the issue.

    • Select How to and follow the steps to improve the file's accessibility.

      Tip

      These instructions change depending on the file and the accessibility issues found. For example, with a PDF you may see instructions on how to make the PDF tagged. Select How to Make a PDF Tagged.

  4. Upload: Upload updated files to replace the existing one.