Accessibility and why is it important
Many students have disabilities or learning differences that affect how they use, experience and contribute to the internet, and by taking simple steps we can minimise any barriers to learning.
Please see the information in the TEL handbook for further details of the reasonable adjustments you can make to improve the accessibility of your Blackboard courses and the resources that you upload.
Creating accessible Blackboard courses
NEW for 2019: Aston has invested in Blackboard Ally, a system which aids accessibility by automatically making resources available in a range of formats. If you upload a Word document it will be available as PDF, HTML, ePub, electronic braille and audio MP3.
If you upload a Word file that has non-accessible features such as images with no text alternative, Ally will alert you to the problem and show you how it can be fixed, encouraging you to edit and re-upload the file. In this way, Ally aims to guide you towards considering accessibility as a normal aspect of your work.