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OSU-Specific Frequently Asked Questions about Ally

  • What is happening with existing accessibility tools?

    ReadSpeaker and TextAid have been removed from Canvas. Most functionality previously provided by these tools will be replaced by Ally alternative formats or by Immersive Reader available in Canvas. Students who have documented disabilities with Disability Access Services can contact DAS for help with assistive technology needs. All users can contact OSU Canvas Support for assistance with Ally.

    Currently, Ally functionality for fixing issues in Canvas content (e.g., content in Canvas pages and assignments) is not comparable to the current accessibility tools. OSU will continue to provide UDOIT Accessibility Check to fix issues in Canvas content. Additionally, Canvas has a native Canvas Accessibility Checker that can also be used to fix some issues in Canvas content.

  • Does Ally check media content for captions - Kaltura or YouTube?

    Ally does not check embedded Kaltura media for the presence of captions. Ally does check YouTube videos for the presence of captions.

    Auto-generated Kaltura or YouTube captions are not considered valid captions as they are not accurate enough to meet accessibility standards. Please edit auto-generated captions to correct any errors. Learn more about requesting and editing captions to your Kaltura media.

    Disability Access Services (DAS) will provide professional captioning of video content in courses where captioning is required to provide accommodations for a DAS student enrolled in the course. Please communicate with DAS early if they have indicated captioning is required and you have video content in your course.

    Ecampus Faculty Support will also provide captioning for video content in Ecampus courses.

  • Can faculty update their files directly within Canvas to make them more accessible?

    No, faculty will need to edit the document on their local computer and upload the edited file to Canvas. To seamlessly replace the original file in Canvas with the edited version, be certain that the edited version has the same file name as the original file in Canvas. Replacing a file in Canvas ensures that all existing links in your course site point to the edited file.

  • Does Ally generate alternative formats for Canvas quizzes?

    Ally will only generate alternative formats for quiz content that is visible to students prior to starting a quiz (e.g., quiz title and general quiz instructions if provided). Ally will not generate alternative text for any Canvas quiz questions or answer options.

  • Does Ally generate alternative formats for student submissions?

    No. Ally only processes instructional content. It currently does not process student content or student submissions.

  • Some of the issues flagged by Ally require knowledge of HTML. What resources are available for faculty who do not have the deep knowledge required to fix some of these issues?

    General accessibility resources are provided by the university. Consider reaching out to departmental or college leadership to have a conversation about content-specific accessibility support within units.

  • Can I disable Ally in my Canvas course(s)?

    No, there is not a way to selectively disable Ally in specific courses.

  • There is no information on the Ally Course Report in my Canvas course(s) even though the courses have content. What can I do?

    All courses have the ability to be scanned by Ally but, because of the numbers of courses in our Canvas instance, only a few years' worth of courses were pre-scanned by Ally at the time of implementation. For courses that weren't pre-scanned, you will need to upload a new file or create new content in the course to trigger the initial Ally scan. Once you've uploaded a file or created a new page in the course, the Ally Course Report should update within a few minutes.