Using the Ally Course Report in UB Learns

As documents are uploaded to your UB Learns course, Ally checks them for accessibility. The Ally Course Report provides detailed information about any accessibility issues in the course, as well as information about the accessibility of each individual document. Any item that receives a score less than 100% should be reviewed and remediated.

• Find the blue navigation bar at the top of the screen.
• Locate and Select the Instructor Only Menu on the far-right side of the Nav bar.
• Select Ally Course Report.
• Review the Course Accessibility Score located in the top-left corner.
• Ally also identifies which documents are easy to fix, as well as those with more serious issues.
• In the bottom section of the report, accessibility issues are listed from most severe to least severe, and the documents with each these issues are available for review by clicking on the arrow on the right side of the screen.
• When a document is selected, the document report provides an accessibility score and provides a description of the issue, as well as how to resolve it. 
• Documents may have more than one issue, which are identified by clicking on the “All Issues” button.
• To fix the identified issues in uploaded files, such as Word or PowerPoint files and PDFs, the source document must be remediated in the relevant tool and reuploaded to the course. Ally will check it again and provide an updated accessibility score.
• The accessibility score can be viewed directly from the content section of the course. Each document has an associated gauge icon. To see the updated score and document accessibility report, click on the icon.

• Navigate to the content section of your course
• Create a new content module
• To create a content page, click on the Upload/Create button and select “Create a File.”
• Assign a paragraph style to your text (i.e. paragraph, heading 1 etc.) Use the recommended font (Lato) and minimum size (19pt).
• Enter your content by typing it in directly, or copy from an existing document.
• While you're adding content, you can use the Brightspace accessibility checker to review as you go. Run this checker by selecting the person in a circle icon to the right of the paintbrush icon.
• Save and close the page. The page should now reflect your updates.

Ally reports focus on Spring 2026 courses and all courses moving forward. Courses are included in departmental reports only if they contain uploaded files. Courses without uploaded files are not included in Ally reporting.

Courses from previous semesters are not included in the Ally scores distributed to department chairs. These courses are not broadly available to students and can only be accessed by students with incompletes.

Per the UB Learns Data Retention Policy, past courses are removed after one calendar year. For example, Spring 2025 courses will be removed in June..

If you are reusing or rolling content forward into current courses, that content must meet accessibility standards and may require remediation.

If there are concerns about content in past courses, instructors may delete that content at any time.

To remove all content from a course:

1. Select the Content tab from the course navbar
2. Locate the Table of Contents
3. Click the dropdown (chevron) next to the title
4. Select Delete All Modules

If you plan to reuse content, wait until it has been copied into a current course before deleting it.

For additional training, register for an upcoming CATT virtual session on creating accessible content in UB Learns, Word, PowerPoint, or PDF.  For individual support, reach out to your Unit Accessibility Liaison or submit a ticket through CATT.