Posted on No Comments on Recap: October ’20 Workshops, Better Late Than Never.

Recap: October ’20 Workshops, Better Late Than Never.

Website Update

I’ll lead with some really BIG NEWS. We finally launched phase one of the Access @ Rice website. It’s still very much a work in progress, but I’d love for you to check it out and send me your feedback!

We are trying to model accessible best practices that anyone can adopt. For the sake of transparency, we’re still working on a couple of important issues:

  • Adding Skip Nav links (to bypass the hamburger menu for keyboard-only users).
  • Responsive containers and images (resizing on smaller screens).

October Workshops Recap

Thanks to everyone who helped make the October accessibility workshop series a smashing success 🎉 <party popper>! I’m already planning the next series of workshops after the Thanksgiving holiday.

In the meantime, here are some numbers from the October series:

  • 5 workshop topics.
  • 19 sessions from October 5 to October 30.
  • About 100 total attendees in all workshops.
  • About 50 unique attendees.

I’m so impressed by your dedication to making Rice a more inclusive place for all!

Shareable Resources

Feel free to share the following workshop links with anyone and everyone! Unfortunately, I didn’t record every session and I haven’t had a chance to clean up all of the captions yet 🙁 <frown>.

  1. Intro to Digital Accessibility
  2. Designing with WCAG
  3. Accessible Docs & PDFs
  4. Better Captions
  5. What to Expect from Policy 851

Please let me know if you have trouble accessing anything, or if you find any accessibility barriers and I will take care of them.

Upcoming Workshops

I’m planning a new round of training events starting in December, which will most likely include active workshops/discussions on Drupal 8 and STE M accessibility.

Look at for those new sessions here, on the Canvas Workshop Calendars, and on Twitter @RiceA11y. In the meantime, feel free to setup a consultation at calendly.com/rice-a11y.

Posted on No Comments on Blackboard Ally File Transformer Free During COVID-19

Blackboard Ally File Transformer Free During COVID-19

The Blackboard Ally File Transformer enables you and your students to convert course files into a variety of different formats including:

  • PDFs with Tags and OCR
  • Audio
  • HTML
  • Electronic braille
  • ePub
  • Beeline Reader

The file transformer has been free to use since April 1, 2020. For more information, see Blackboard’s press release.

Universal Design for Learning

Providing course files in multiple formats gives students more flexibility to choose how they engage with your content and learn.

For example, imagine you have a text-heavy document or article that you need your students to read. With Ally, students can convert the document into an MP3 that they can play in their earbuds while they walk around campus or while they travel home for the weekend. Or, they can convert the same document into an ePub format for easier reading and note taking on their iPad.

Example, PDF to MP3

In this example, I uploaded a tagged PDF to the Blackboard Ally File Transformer and selected Audio as my output, then I downloaded an MP3 file.

Select a File to Upload Select an Alternative Format
Drag and drop or use the 'Browse' button to select a file to upload. Select an alternative format including HTML, ePub, Electronic Braille, Audio, and BeeLine, then select 'Download.'

Check out the MP3 Version and original PDF embedded below.

MP3 Version Converted from Ally

Original PDF uploaded to Ally

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