In 2021, the University of Pretoria became the first African higher education institution to use the Blackboard Ally software to make the University’s digital courses more accessible to all students. The software enables students who may have barriers to learning - including but not limited to students with disabilities - to improve their academic performance by making academic content easily accessible.

Ally is a revolutionary solution that integrates seamlessly into leading learning management systems, making digital course content accessible to a greater diversity of students. It automatically checks digital files for accessibility issues, and generates alternative formats for download, including HTML, ePUB, audio and electronic braille, which are engineered to work better with assistive mobile devices and study tools. Ally also provides feedback to instructors so that they can improve the accessibility of their course material.

While the focus is on content accessibility, all students, including first-generation students, may benefit from accessing learning content in alternative formats. Students with inconsistent internet access may be able to use offline, low-bandwidth formats, and those with undiagnosed learning disabilities could benefit from downloading an audio MP3 format file to read and listen to content. 

“Our goal is to build an inclusive digital learning environment to honour diversity,” said Prof Norman Duncan, Vice-Principal: Academic at UP. “We strive for excellence in teaching and learning. In the contemporary world, accessibility to digital content is not a luxury but a necessity. Meeting accessibility standards is a must, especially given the increasing ubiquity of online learning technologies.”

Dolf Jordaan, Deputy Director of the Department for Education Innovation, commends it for promoting the institutional digital accessibility transformation strategy: “Our use of Ally aligns with the University’s policies regarding equality, diversity and its commitment to embracing the digital transformation strategy in line with our new strategy of a reimagined UP.”

“UP has partnered with Blackboard for more than two decades,” said Prof Gerrit Stols, Director of the Department for Education Innovation at UP. “Adding accessibility features to enhance digital content will assist UP to proactively identify barriers to digital content for all students. We want to ensure that no student is left behind in their studies.”

Alongside the introduction of Ally, Dr Alecia Samuels of the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication at UP, has also developed a digital accessibility course. It aims to create awareness among academic and professional support staff of the need to design accessible digital materials and give them the skills to make digital content more accessible from the very beginning, since all accessibility issues may not always be picked up by accessibility checkers such as Ally. The course focuses on how to design accessible digital documents, presentations, and video content as well as plan accessible online meetings.

“We have about 700 students at UP who have declared their disabilities, but there may be many more who may not have disclosed a form of learning disability. Additionally, second-language students could also benefit from enhanced accessibility,” Dr Samuels said. “One example is closed captioning or subtitles on videos which greatly assists students with hearing impairments. However, there is a strong body of research that shows that captioning is also effective for language learning and can improve grammar, vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension for second language students. The ability to caption videos is not a feature that is currently incorporated into Ally, but by giving staff the knowledge and skills on how to improve accessibility of videos, written course material as well as marketing material etc we are acknowledging that everyone learns differently. By making our content accessible for students with disabilities, we are making our content accessible for everyone.”

Dr Maria Ramaahlo, Head: Disability Unit (Department of Student Affairs), remarked that digital accessibility is essential to providing equal opportunity for students with disabilities. Ally contributes to the creation of inclusive learning environments, by providing UP staff members with some of the tools needed to ensure accessible features are integrated from the start.

Side bar: Ally is available in all ClickUP courses since the beginning of the academic year. An Ally change management campaign was also launched to support users with the adoption of the software. Feedback received from this campaign indicates that most students (93%) and lecturers (81%) provided positive feedback about the campaign. Usage data show that in 1113 active courses, 6181 users launched 44 683 alternative format windows and downloaded 20 790 content items to alternative formats. The most popular alternative format is ePub versions of content. Blackboard Ally is available for all staff and students on ClickUP. Lecturers are encouraged to enrol for the Digital accessibility course in ClickUP which contains online help and tutorials. There are continuous new releases and upgrades to ensure it functions optimally.

Read testimonials from staff and students who’ve benefited from Ally below:

"I think Ally helps both the students and the instructor. As an instructor, it was great to get an indication of the level of accessibility just a few minutes after uploading the material. It gave me a chance to enhance accessibility as much as possible. Most importantly, it made me aware! Moreover, students seemed to engage with the course material better after Ally!" Dr Moraka Nakedi Makhura, Senior Lecturer & Director: Collaborative Centre for Economics of Agricultural Research & Development

“Initially I found the option to change colours was pretty cool but I eventually went back to the ‘greys’ as the colours that scaled through the words and sentences was distracting…I did enjoy the ability to scroll easily through the written content and I found it very easy to enlarge the text to make it easier to read.” Bethany J Frazer, Masters in ECI student.

“I identify myself as a visual learner therefore the provision of captions accompanying the lectures allowed for me to follow the discussion of content with more ease as I received both audio and visual input over and above the slides of information generated by the lecturers. I furthermore enjoyed the option to enlarge text, especially useful when working through late nights or early mornings.” Rene Chetty, UP Masters student.

“I attempted using the Audio (MP3) version of the lecture notes during the onsite week and found this version to be very helpful as accessing them on my phone allowed me to ‘multitask’ far more easily than when I have ‘attended’ the lectures on my laptop. This made it far easier to breastfeed my babies, make them lunch and address some other household needs while listening to lectures from my phone in my pocket. Accessing the lectures in this way also means that I can be anywhere i.e., sitting in a long car trip or queue, exercising or cooking dinner when I want to revisit information in preparing for my assignment. I did need to go back and re-read the lecture notes and watch some of the added videos after listening to the lectures at a later stage to reinforce my learning.” Sarah Janse van Rensburg, UP Masters student.