Faculty Guide to Alternate Format

When a student provides you with a letter of accommodation that includes an accommodation for alternate format, you can help facilitate the process of making your course material accessible by working closely with the alternate format team (accesstext@uic.edu).

Questions and Resources Heading link

Complete the Alternate Format Request Form

Submitting the Alternate Format Request 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 15 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 all 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 15 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.

Blackboard Ally Resources to Increase Accessibility

“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

At the top of the report is an accessibility score for the entire course.

Scores range from Low to Perfect. The higher the score the fewer the issues.

  •  Low (0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.
  • Medium (34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.
  •  High (67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.
  •  Perfect (100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.
    Improve Content Accessibility

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

Supported Browsers

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®

Blackboard Ally Support for Instructors

Blackboard Ally Quick Start for Instructors

Overview for Instructors of Ally for Learning Management Systems