A Quick Q&A on Anthology Ally!
What is Anthology Ally?
Anthology Ally is a brand new tool for faculty and students that helps PTC reach our accessibility goals, provide helpful feedback for online files, and provide solutions on how to make your online courses as accessible as possible!
Why have we rolled out Anthology Ally?
Anthology Ally will be used by PTC to help us meet our online accessibility goals as outline by the new Title II ADA requirements for our online platforms. Specifically, these requirements ask us to meeting WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) at the 2.1 AA standard.
Anthology Ally measures our online files and courses and offers a “grade” based on overall WCAG 2.2 AA compliancy, which also covers WCAG 2.1 AA Standards.
More information on these Title II ADA Requirements can be found here: https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/
What is the end goal for PTC & Anthology Ally?
At PTC we are looking to get all of our online resources as accessible as possible to ensure we serve our students and employees in the best possible fashion.
Anthology Ally will help us close in on this goal in the short-term but the changes don’t stop there; all future files uploaded into D2L will be checked with Anthology Ally as well to guarantee that even as our classes change we can keep up with evolving accessibility requirements!
Who Has Access to Anthology Ally?
As of right now, Anthology Ally has been enabled in all PTC mastershells. Instructors with access to any given mastershell will be able to utilize Anthology Ally, ensuring that their courses are compliant with current accessibility standards as they are rolled from the mastershells in the future!
Further rollout to academic courses at the instructional level will occur in the Spring 2026 Semester. At this time, ALL instructors and students will be able to utilize the features Anthology Ally provides for their respective roles in all active classes.
What does Anthology Ally NOT check?
Anthology Ally is unable to review and provide feedback on third party platforms, (ALEKS, Mindtap, etc..) and the files that exist on them.
We have taken care in obtaining VPATs (Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates) for all of the third party platforms we integrate to ensure their platforms are accessible. However, if you are uploading your own personal files into a third party platform please ensure their compliance using Anthology Ally before uploading them there!
Anthology Ally Tutorials:
How to access your Anthology Ally dashboard
Instructors can easily access Anthology Ally from the courses it is activated in by selecting “More” from the course navbar and then “Ally Instructor Report”
You may also navigate to ally by selecting the “Accessibility Rating” icon next to any content item in your course, this will take you to the information panel for that file specifically.
Navigating Ally Instructor Dashboard
Once inside of the Instructor Dashboard, you will be greeted with the following page. Let’s take a look at each item and what they are!
1 – Ally Accessibility Score
This is the overall score for the course and/or specific file you are viewing. We are looking to get our course scores as accessible as possible to ensure excellent accessibility compliance!
2 – Course Content Breakdown
This is a pie chart containing the number of content items in your course and the breakdown of what file types they are!
3 – Fix Easy Content Button
This button takes you directly to the content with accessibility issues that are EASIEST to fix! While these generally won’t increase your course score by a whole lot, they will be easier to fix than anything else and is a great place to start with Anthology Ally!
4 – Fix Low Scoring Content Button
This button takes you to a list of content that is scoring the lowest in your course. Fixing these issues may take a bit longer, but will increase your score even higher!
5 – Remaining Issues List
This lists all of the accessibility issues in your course and the number of content items those issues are present in. Selecting one of these issues will bring you to each of the files in your course that they are affecting!
Fixing Course Content Issues with Ally
After navigating to your dashboard and selecting a file/accessibility issue from your preferred list, you will be greeted with a page that looks like the following. Please note that this page varies depending on the file type you have selected and which issues you are attempting to fix.
Like before, let’s take a look at everything one at a time!
1 – Highlighted Issue
When selecting an issue or specific file from the ally instructor dashboard, a preview of the document will load (dependent on file type) and highlight where issues were detected. In this image, the title on the first slide of a powerpoint has been selected with the “Text Fragments With Insufficient Contrast” is shown.
2 – Anthology Ally File Score
This is a score similar to the overall course score, however in this area the score is for the specific file only! As accessibility issues are fixed, the file score will go up and, by extension, the overall course score will also increase!
3 – What This Means Button
This button shows a brief description of WHY a file was tagged for any specific issue. This lets us better understand why an issue is significant and who fixing it can help!
4 – How to Fix This Button
This button gives you a list of software to chose from and then provides step-by-step instructions on how to fix the issues listed.
Please note the following restrictions that currently affect this area: Some issues do not have a “How to fix” button as of yet, and the primary PDF editor we use at PTC, Nitro PDF Pro, is currently not supported in the fixes instruction page. That said, a simple google search with the specified problem and Nitro PDF (A.E. “How to Fix Contrast in Nitro PDF Pro”) has held up well in testing in the mean time.
Selecting software, in this case Microsoft 365, brings up a step-by-step guide on how to fix the contrast issues.
5 – File Upload Area
This is the area you may upload files to once you have made appropriate accessibility changes.
This will replace the original file in your course with the new file, please be advised to update any links in your course to the new file if you have them!
6 – Download File Button
This button allows you to download the original file in your course from the Anthology Ally area. No swapping between tabs needed!
Self-Serve Accessible Documents in D2L
Ally also brings along a new feature in D2L, specifically the ability for all users to download accessible, alternative files from the content area. This is displayed as an “A” with a download arrow next to it near any file in D2L’s content area. This helps us provide alternative, accessible files on demand without the need for student-to-instructor interaction.
Selecting this download button opens up a new window where users can select what type of Alternative File Format to download. Please note that options vary based on original file type.
Anthology Ally Official Documentation:
Resources
If you’d like to continue your Anthology Ally adventure, please feel free to check out some official documentation below!
Official Anthology Ally for LMS Help for Instructors
Official Anthology Ally Instructor Quick Start Guide
Official Anthology Ally Instructor Quick Start Video
Official Anthology Ally Update Notes