Using Ally to Check Accessibility

Updated on Oct 18, 2022

This article is for faculty who want to check the accessibility of a course on Canvas.

Article Overview

Find Ally on Your Course Navigation Menu
View Your Overall Report
Fix Accessibility Issues

1. Find Ally on Your Course Navigation Menu

1.1. From your course's navigation menu, find and click on Ally Course Accessibility Report.

The Ally Course Accessibility tab can be found in the Course Navigation to the left in Canvas.

Image of Course Navigation Menu with the Ally Course Accessiblity Report highlighted

If you cannot find the Ally Course Accessibility tab, you may need to enable it from your course's settings. If you do see it, skip to Section 2.

From the Course Navigation Menu, click on the Settings tab.

Image of the Course Navigation Menu with the Settings link highlighted

Click on the Navigation tab at the top of the Settings page.

Image of the Settings page with the Navigation tab highlighted

Scroll down until you find Ally Course Accessibility Report. It may be far down on the list. Click on the vertical dot menu next to Ally Course Accessibility Report. Then click the Enable button.

Image of the Navigation tab with the menu for Ally Course Accessibility Report highlighted and the + enable button highlighted

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Save button.

Image of the navigation tab with the save button at the bottom of the page highlighted

Check your Course Navigation Menu on the left side of the page for a link to Ally Course Accessibility Reports.

Image of the Course Navigation tab with the Ally Course Accessibility Report link highlighted

2. View an Overview of Your Course's Accessibility Score

The first page of Ally Course Accessibility Reports shows your overall accessibility score.

Image of the Ally Course Accessibility Report with a Course accessibility score of 64%

The report also shows the different types of content in your course: images, pages, assignments, quizzes, discussion topics, announcements, and the syllabus.

Ally Course Accessibility report with a breakdown of course content: 400 images, 80 pages, 45 assignments, 18 quizzes, 10 discussion topics, 2 announcements, and 1 syllabus and a view button

Most importantly, the overview report also shows content that has issues.

Image of report overview with the to click a start button to click 260 content with the easiest issues to fix or a start button to fix 260 low scoring content

3. Fix Accessibility Issues

3.1. Fix Low Scoring Content

Now that you know your course's accessibility score, you can start fixing issues. Click the Start button for Fix low scoring content to begin making content more accessible.