Ally not only creates course reports but also institution reports for every semester. We have compiled the top 6 HTML issues that appeared across all digital courses at UTSA.
Each tab corresponds to each issue type. Review the tabs and the tips on how to correct the issue.
To access the list of accessibility issues within your Blackboard course, find your course report labeled Accessibility Report under Course Tools within your Blackboard course.
The HTML content contains images that don’t have a description or alternative text. People with screen readers or other assistive devices rely on these descriptions to understand the image content and purpose. Having a clear description for an image can help everyone better understand the content of the image and how it relates to the context.
If your image lacks a text description, the Ally indicator will appear “red.” Selecting the indicator will reveal that the file is only 25% accessible because it lacks an alternative description. Click the “What this means” button for an explanation, and “How to write a good description” for some quick tips.
When you’re ready, simply add your alternative description to the text field in the Ally feedback window. You can also edit existing text in the box. When you’re done, select “Add.” Make sure your description is more than just the title of the file, or Ally will report an accessibility error. Describe the image and what’s important, and mention any text in the image to improve your score.
If your image is only for visual affect, and does not contain info relevant to the learning content, you can also mark the image as “decorative.” This means no alternative description is necessary, and your accessibility score will improve. This helps assure students of the purpose of those files.
Adapted from Blackboard Ally: Add Alternative Description for Image Files
Embedded and referenced videos need captions to help all students better understand the content of the video and make it possible to watch the video in sound-sensitive environments. They make it possible to search and more efficiently navigate a video. Captions are also a requirement for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Watch Do You Need Captions to learn more about captioning and our captioning program for videos you have created. If you would like to update captions on your own, watch:
The HTML content contains text with low contrast between the text and its background. This can cause the text to be difficult to read, especially for those with low vision, poor eyesight or color blindness.
Instructor Feedback GaugeOr use the steps in the following video:
The headings in the HTML content don’t begin with the main heading and therefore don’t follow a logical order. Having the main heading at the beginning of the document will provide a more logical structure and will make the document much easier to understand and navigate for all users.
Instructor Feedback GaugeYou can also highlight the text with the heading error and use the block paragraph/heading tool to change the heading level.
Block Paragraph/Heading ToolThe HTML content contains tables that don’t have or properly specify a header structure. People with screen readers or other assistive devices rely on a semantically meaningful and correct heading structure to help them navigate the table and understand the meaning of every cell, but it can be beneficial to everyone to have a clear structure in the table.
Instructor Feedback GaugeThe HTML content contain headings with no content. This can cause potentially confusing content-less alerts to screen reader users.
Instructor Feedback GaugeYou can also remove the blank line, or if you would like to keep space, use the block paragraph/heading tool to change the line to a paragraph block instead of a heading
Block Paragraph/Heading ToolClick the button below to email our Digital Accessibility Team.