Ally Accessibility Platform

Starting during the spring 2023 semester, the university is making the Ally accessibility platform available to instructors and students. The platform helps to improve digital course content and make it more accessible and user-friendly for all students.

The Ally platform integrates directly with Canvas and provides simple, step-by-step guidance on how to present course materials in a way that best supports student success. Improving accessibility, which is a core feature of the platform, helps improve the learning experience for all students and ensures students with disabilities have better access to course materials.

Providing additional formats for required readings also improves usability for mobile devices. The platform also generates alternative formats of your course files that can greatly improve students’ experience — allowing students to access HTML versions for their phones, ePub versions for their tablets, MP3 versions for audio, and electronic braille versions.

From the beginning of the spring 2023 term through spring break, the Ally accessibility platform will be available to any UT faculty member who would like to opt-in and be a part of the initial, limited rollout. After spring break, it will be rolled out to all faculty and automatically enabled in all Canvas courses.

If you are an instructor, you can request early access to the Ally platform for your courses. (Please note that there will be limited support for early adopters of the Ally accessibility platform.)

More information on the Ally platform is available on the Canvas Resource Center.