Office Hours

July 22, 2026

Inside Ally Office Hours (July 20th, 2026)

# Accessibility

# Ally

Highlights and Takeaways

Katie Grennell, PhD.

Inside July 21st Ally Office Hours: Highlights and Takeaways

Our July Ally Office Hours brought together members of the Ally community from around the world for product updates, accessibility conversations, and a look at what's ahead. Because this session was rescheduled following Building Blackboard Together, it also gave us an opportunity to share some highlights from the conference and celebrate the incredible work happening across our community. Thank you to everyone who joined us live and contributed questions, ideas, and feedback.

Upcoming Maintenance and Reporting API Updates

A scheduled maintenance window is planned for August 8, with database upgrades taking place ahead of the busy fall term. Additional details and regional time conversions will be shared through the status board as the date approaches.

The team also provided an early heads-up about an upcoming reporting API token refresh. As part of ongoing security improvements, reporting API tokens will move to shorter expiration periods and all existing tokens will eventually be reset. Institutions using the reporting API will receive advance notice and instructions before those changes take effect.

New Content

Ally for Instructors Microlearning Video Series : this video series is growing with the recent addition of the video PDF Accessibility Challenges for Instructors & Learners and Ally’s PDF Quick Fix: Missing Language Set.

Ally Product Pulse-July Edition : check out the July edition of the Ally Product Pulse. The August edition is coming soon!

Calling All Non-Blackboard Ally Users: The team is actively looking for stories from institutions using Ally with learning management systems beyond Blackboard, including Canvas, D2L, Moodle, and others. These stories help showcase different accessibility journeys, highlight successful strategies, and provide relatable examples for other institutions working within similar LMS environments. Community members interested in sharing their experiences are encouraged to connect with the Ally Community team at [email protected] .

Communication & Adoption Toolkit : We’re expanding the toolkit with new resources! Planned additions include:

Instructor tips & tricks

Back-to-school accessibility resources

Alternative Formats Promotion Resources

Have ideas for content you’d like to see included in the expanded toolkit? Please let Katie Grennell know!

Recent Releases

New Usage Report: All institutions now have access to the redesigned usage report included in the Institutional Report, featuring:

New Usage Report User Interface that doesn’t require excel downloading

Easier filtering, sorting and drill down to get fasters insights into how your institution is using Ally

Export options remain for those that want to download the data set

Release Notes on the New Usage Report

PDF Auto-Tagging Now Available: following a successful early adopter program, PDF Auto-Tagging is now available to all institutions! This feature is turned off by default and can be enabled by administrators through Ally’s configuration settings. Once activated, instructors can use the Auto-Tagging Quick Fix to apply document structure tags to PDFs while remaining fully in control of reviewing and approving those changes.

Release Notes on PDF Auto Tagging Quick Fix

Key Facts About Auto-Tagging

The PDF Auto Tagging Early Adopter Program exceeded expectations:

More than 70 institutions participated

Over 3,000 PDFs were tagged during the program

More than 20 enhancement ideas were submitted by participants

Feedback from early adopters is already helping shape future PDF remediation improvements, including exploration of editable tags and color contrast remediation capabilities. Thank you again to all that have participated and submitted feedback!

Highlights from Building Blackboard Together

Last week, many members of the community joined us at Building Blackboard Together in Dallas, Texas. Accessibility & Inclusion had its own dedicated track, and your fellow Ally community members who attended shared their expertise, experiences, and innovative practices through a series of engaging presentations. Here are a few key Ally-related takeaways from the conference.

Ally Roadmap session: this year’s conference session drew a standing-room-only audience! Using a Top 10 countdown format, the session highlighted current and future Ally roadmap investments, including:

The new Rich Content Editor project

Future PDF remediation capabilities

OCR guidance improvements

AI Alt Text Assistant for Images in PDFs

System-level reporting enhancements

Course Accessibility Report improvements

The upcoming Ally Enhanced Reader alternative format

Ally User Group Meetup: one of the most meaningful moments from the conference was the Ally User Group meetup, led by Paula Kaplan. The conversation focused on favorite memories, shared experiences, and the value of community. A recurring theme emerged throughout the discussion: the Ally community remains one of the program's greatest strengths. From new members to longtime advocates, participants highlighted the importance of collaboration, generosity, and shared commitment to improving the student experience through accessibility.

Catalyst Awards: each year, the Blackboard Catalyst Awards recognize standout institutions that are reimagining what's possible in education and using Anthology solutions to make a meaningful impact for their learners. This year's Accessibility Innovation award winners were recognized for their commitment to advancing accessibility and creating more inclusive learning experiences. The 2026 Catalyst Award winners for accessibility & inclusion are:

Coppin State University

Central Arizona College

Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria)

The University of Law

Congratulations again to all four winners! We appreciate your willingness to share your work, celebrate your successes, and help advance accessibility efforts across the broader higher education community.

Upcoming Events

Ally Roadmap Session: Having FOMO about missing the Ally roadmap session at BbT? Fear not! A repeat is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18^th at 10:00 am EST. To register, visit: https://connect.blackboard.com/blackboard-ally-roadmap

Ally User Group Meeting: the next Ally User Group meeting will take place on Thursday, July 30^th at 10:00 am EST. Meeting and Ally User Group information can be found in the community at https://community.anthology.com/home/clubs/ally-user-group .

Q&A Highlights

During the Q&A portion of the office hours, attendees raised questions and shared feedback on a variety of topics, including:

Blackboard content syncing and file processing issues, particularly for newly added course content.

Planning for Fix Your Content Day, including requests for event timing to help institutions align local accessibility initiatives. This year’s FYCD is being targeted for November-specific date and details coming soon!

Using and troubleshooting the new Usage Report, including date filtering and reporting views. The Ally team has identified an issue only impacting some institutions and is working on a fix.

Ideas for making course accessibility scores and reports more visible to instructors and instructional designers.

Alternative text behavior during Canvas course copies and imports, as well as best practices for reporting unexpected results.

Thank you to everyone who joined this month's Ally Office Hours and shared questions, feedback, and ideas. We always appreciate the opportunity to connect with our community and learn from your experiences.

Our next Ally Office Hours is scheduled for Monday, August 10 at 11:00 am EST and we hope to see you there!

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