What is Ally?

This is a tool integrated into Canvas. Ally is an accessibility tool designed to help students and instructors by providing more accessible versions of files. You can also use Ally to access alternative file types that best match your learning style.

Take a look at this short video overview for students:

How To Use Ally

Ally creates more accessible content in your courses by offering your course files in multiple formats. When you are in a course in Canvas and a file is linked on a page, you will see a small dropdown icon at the end of the file name. If you click on this arrow, you will be given the option to download alternative formats.

Click the dropdown arrow next to the file and select Accessible versions, as shown in the image below:

Ally Dropdown Menu

A list of accessible file options will then appear. The accessible versions include audio, ePub, PDF with tagged structure, electronic Braille, HTML, and OCRed for scanned PDF files. The versions listed may vary depending on the file content.

Select the version you would like to open and click the Download button, as shown in the image below:

Ally Accessible Version List

If this is the first time you are downloading a specific type of file, a Preparing download notification will appear. After the download is complete, you can open the file. You can also return to the file to download different versions.