When to use Ally, UDOIT, or the Canvas Course Accessibility Checker
Bruin Learn includes several accessibility tools that help instructors identify and improve accessibility issues in Canvas content and uploaded course files. This guide explains how Ally, UDOIT, and the Canvas Accessibility Checker can be used to support different course accessibility tasks.
Each tool has different strengths. In many cases, instructors may benefit from using more than one tool to review and improve course accessibility.
Overview of Available Accessibility Tools
Ally
UCLA has a long history of supporting Ally in Bruin Learn. Ally helps instructors identify accessibility issues in Canvas content and uploaded course files, including PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents.
For each inaccessible item, Ally assigns an accessibility score and step-by-step remediation guidance. Ally also provides student-facing alternative formats, supports several inline PDF remediation options, and includes an AI alt text assist that can generate suggested alternative text for images.
UDOIT
UDOIT is similar to Ally because it can scan course content and identify accessibility issues in Canvas pages, files, images, links, tables, and embedded media. UDOIT also provides several features that complement Ally, including course-level prioritization, PDF-to-Canvas Page conversion, and embedded media caption checks for Kaltura, YouTube, and Vimeo content.
Canvas Accessibility Checker
The Canvas Accessibility Checker is a built-in Canvas tool that instructors can use while editing content in the Rich Content Editor (RCE). It is useful for quick checks of Canvas pages, assignments, discussions, and quizzes, but it is more limited than Ally and UDOIT. It does not scan uploaded files, provide alternative formats, generate course-level reports, or support broader accessibility remediation workflows.
Below is a comparison of each accessibility tool available to instructors in Bruin Learn.
Accessibility Tool Use Case Overview
Course Accessibility Task | UDOIT | Ally | Canvas Accessibility Checker |
|---|---|---|---|
Review accessibility issues across a Canvas/Bruin Learn course | Provides a course scan and dashboard for reviewing accessibility issues in one place. | Provides a Course Accessibility Report and item-level accessibility indicators. | Does not provide a course-wide scan. |
Check accessibility while editing Canvas content | Provides issue guidance after course content is scanned. | Provides feedback on supported content items and updates accessibility score indicators after content is remediated. | Available in the Rich Content Editor while editing Canvas pages, assignments, quizzes, and discussions. |
Review uploaded files, such as PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint files | Provides some file accessibility checks and guidance. | Provides file accessibility feedback and more alternative format options for uploaded files. | Does not scan uploaded files. |
Review Canvas pages and HTML content | Scans Canvas HTML content, including pages, assignments, discussions, classic quizzes, links, images, and tables. | Reviews supported Canvas HTML content, including pages, assignments, discussions, classic quizzes, New Quizzes, and images. | Checks common accessibility issues in Canvas HTML content wherever the Rich Content Editor is available. |
Review embedded media captions | Checks embedded media from sources such as Kaltura, YouTube, and Vimeo for captions and may identify auto-generated captions. | Provides limited media evaluation. | Does not support media accessibility checking. |
Provide student-facing alternative formats | Provides alternative formats such as optimized PDF, HTML, MP3, ePub, and text. | Provides alternative formats such as Electronic Braille, Audio MP3, Immersive Reader, HTML, tagged PDF, ePub, and BeeLine Reader. | Does not provide alternative formats. |
Convert PDF content into editable Canvas content | Provides an option to convert some PDFs into Canvas pages that can be edited in Bruin Learn. | Provides HTML alternative formats, but does not directly convert PDFs into Canvas pages. | Does not convert PDFs into Canvas pages. |
Filter unpublished content | Allows instructors to review issues in a dashboard and filter out unpublished content. | Does not support filtering unpublished content in course-level reporting. | Does not provide course-level reporting or filtering. |
Using More Than One Accessibility Tool
Instructors can use more than one accessibility tool when reviewing course content. These tools have varying strengths and limitations compared with each other, but when used together, they can provide a more complete picture of course accessibility.
For example, Ally can help instructors review overall course accessibility, identify issues in uploaded files, and provide alternative formats for students. UDIOT can help instructors scan course content, prioritize course-wide fixes, review embedded media captions, filter unpublished content, and convert some PDFs into editable Canvas pages. The Canvas Accessibility Checker can be used for quick checks while creating or editing Canvas content in the Rich Content Editor.
FAQs
Yes. Instructors can use both Ally and UDOIT to review and improve course accessibility. Each tool may identify different issues and remediation options, so using both can give instructors a more complete view of accessibility concerns in their course.
Ally and UDOIT may show different scores, issue counts, or accessibility categories because they use different scanning methods, scoring models, and reporting workflows.
Instructors should use the reports as a complementary view of course accessibility. Fixing issues identified by either tool should improve the accessibility of course content, even if scores do not update or match in the same way.
No. The Canvas Accessibility Checker is useful for quick checks while editing Canvas content, but it does not scan uploaded files, provide alternative formats, or generate course-level reports.
Use Ally to check PDF accessibility and receive remediation guidance. Use UDOIT when you want to try converting a PDF into an editable Canvas Page. Complex PDFs may still require additional remediation outside of Canvas.
Use UDOIT to help identify some embedded media caption issues, including Kaltura, YouTube, and Vimeo videos. Ally has more limited media accessibility checking and the Canvas Accessibility Checker does not scan embedded media content in courses.
