Alternate Format

First, you should schedule a meeting with a DRC Disability Specialist to determine whether alternate format is an appropriate accommodation for your documented disability and which format best fits your needs. Check out our Registration Page for more information.

• Complete the Alternate Format Request Form. Submitting the form will start the process to convert course material into an alternate format.
  • If you require textbooks in an alternate format, gather the book title and ISBN for each textbook and include this information in your request. If you don’t know this information, you can look it up on the UIC Bookstore website.
  • If you indicate on the request form that you need assigned course readings converted, we will reach out to your instructors to access to these materials and convert them as they become available.

**Please note that it may take up to 10 business days to convert course materials and keep in mind that it is never too early before the semester begins to put in a request!

• Prepare to receive your converted material
  • If you are a Kurzweil user, make sure your Universal Library account set up. Find tutorials on navigating Kurzweil below.
    • The alternate format team will upload material into your “private” folder organized by semester, course, and week (depending on the course structure). See video below for visual
  • If you are not a Kurzweil user, make sure that your Box account is set up. All students have access to a free Box account through UIC.
    • The alternate format team will create and share a folder titled “***Student’s Name.” Within this folder you’ll find course folders that contain textbooks and/or weekly folders (depending on the course structure)

If you need assistance with either of these steps you can contact Nicole Sims, our Alternate Format Specialist at accesstext@uic.edu

• The alternate format team will upload converted course material either to your Kurzweil Universal Library or the Box folder the alternate format team creates for you.

Blackboard Ally has newly integrated ways to interact with course material in alternate formats within Blackboard online as well as with downloadable material.

Supported download formats:

• OCR’d PDF: allows users to make a scanned PDF into a searchable text, enabling users to highlight, add notes, and search the document
• Tagged PDF: allows users to download a PDF that has increased accessibility for screen reader users
• HTML
• ePub
• Electronic Braille
• Audio: allows users to listen to course material in MP3
• Beeline Reader: allows users to adjust color gradient of text to reduce eye strain
• Immersive Reader (requires internet): allows users to set font size/spacing/contrast and converts text to speech with integrated highlighting function and other customized reading settings. (Does not currently support images/tables)

Ally is supported on the same browser as the Learning Management System (LMS) it is accessed from.

• Google Chrome™
• Mozilla Firefox^®
• Microsoft Edge^®
• Internet Explorer^®
• Safari^®

Alternate Formats Overview for Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally FAQ for students

Ally for Students in Blackboard Learn

Please complete the Alternate Format Request Form. Submitting the form will start the process to convert course material into an alternate format for students.

This form will require you to upload your syllabus and/or course calendar as well as a few examples of assigned readings that will need converting so our team can assess the scope of the request before following up with you.

**Please note that it may take up to 10 business days to convert course materials–It is never too early to upload course material!

The faculty role in the alternate format process will vary based upon the student’s request.

For all requests: ensure that you have completed the Alternate Format Request Form.

For textbook conversions: the alternate format team will coordinate textbook conversions using our online resources. This will likely not require any additional steps on the faculty member’s part.

For students who require any other course material (course material provided by faculty including articles and/or book chapters) in an alternate format, faculty will need to share materials with the DRC Alternate Format team by following the steps below:

1. Make sure that you have a UIC Box account set up by following the steps here: Create A UIC Box Account. If you need assistance with this step, you can contact ACCC at consult@uic.edu (312) 413-0003
2. Once your Box account is created, the alternate format team will share a Box folder with you titled with the course name, number, and semester. Each course folder will house weekly folders for uploaded content.
3. It is the responsibility of the faculty member to upload and organize course material in Box
4. Converting course material for students in a timely manner depends upon the alternate format team receiving the course material through Box in advance of when it is needed
5. Please remember to inform the alternate format team via email (accesstext@uic.edu) with any changes to your course material as soon as possible.

**It may take up to 10 business days to convert course materials–It is never too early to upload course material!

Please note:

• The above is a standard policy the DRC has put in place expected of all faculty when course material is inaccessible to students approved for the alternate format accommodation
• The alternate format team cannot be added to faculty’s Blackboard pages to gain access to course material. We simply lack the bandwidth to do so as we serve students enrolled in hundreds of classes every semester

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!!

If you need assistance at any point in this process, you can contact us directly at accesstext@uic.edu.

“Alternative formats aren’t just for a select group of students. Alternative formats benefit everyone” (Anthology Inc., 2022).

Alternative Formats

Ally provides alternative formats for these content types:

• PDF files
• Microsoft^® Word files
• Microsoft^® Powerpoint^® files
• OpenOffice/LibreOffice files
• Uploaded HTML files
• Content created in the LMS course editor (WYSIWYG)

These alternative formats can be generated:

• OCR’d version (for scanned documents)
• Tagged PDF (currently for Word, Powerpoint and OpenOffice/LibreOffice files)
• Immersive Reader (LMS only)
• Mobile-friendly HTML
• Audio
• ePub
• Electronic Braille
• BeeLine Reader

Course Accessibility Report

Blackboard Ally will generate an accessibility report for each course that provides instructors a metric for accessibility.

The metric includes:

• Overview: accessibility score by content type
• Content: organizes content by accessibility issue
  • Issues are listed in order of priority from severe to minor. Those at the top of the list should be addressed first. Ally looks at the number of students impacted, how often the issue occurs, and the accessibility score to determine the priority.
    • Severe. These issues are the greatest risk to accessibility and require the most attention.
    • Major. These issues impact accessibility, and while not severe, require attention.
    • Minor. These issues should be considered for a better accessibility score.

Accessibility score

Scanned PDFs 

Unfortunately, scanned texts are very inaccessible, and create challenges for all students to read and study effectively.

When you come across a scanned PDF, do your best to replace it with a digitally created version.

Blackboard Ally will prompt users to OCR (optical character recognition) scanned texts, but the results will only be as good as the source document

Blackboard Ally Quick Start for Instructors

Overview for Instructors of Ally for Learning Management Systems