Introducing Anthology Ally: Enhancing Moodle Accessibility
Ally is a tool that improves the accessibility of digital files in Moodle. This helps the university to meet its legal responsibilities and ensure that the content we share is easily accessible to as many people as possible.
Ally Indicators
Addressing accessibility issues with your course content can improve the quality of the ‘alternative formats’ for your students. Ally offers step-by-step guidance to staff when a course document or content needs improvement. You will see the accessibility indicators (pictured below) next to PDF, Word, HTML or PowerPoint files uploaded to Moodle. Ally provides an accessibility score for the file with a visible gauge. The accessibility gauge indicates the degree to which a file meets WCAG2.1 accessibility standards. The gauge icons are visible only to the course instructor and are shown below.
Please note: Students are not able to view the Ally gauges on your files.
Alternative Formats
Ally allows students to download alternative formats of your digital course files so that they can engage with course content in formats that work better with their devices and study tools.
Ally creates alternative formats of the original content you add to your courses. These formats are made available with the original file so everything is in one convenient location. The alternative formats created depend on the original content. If you don’t see an option to download alternative formats, Ally isn’t enabled for that course or the file is not a supported content type.
For more help and support, please contact the Learning Technology Support team or look out for up coming events.
Further resources and support
- Have a go at making your Moodle course content accessible by going to ‘Ally Explained’ our interactive resource. The Enrolment Key is ‘Ally‘
- Ally resources and support for instructors (guidance from Ally)
- Complete Ally accessibility checklist (guidance from Ally)
- Meeting and understanding the regulations (guidance from Jisc Accessibility)
- Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies (guidance from the Central Digital and Data Office)