ally product roadmap

Ally Product Roadmap2021

Meet the Team

Dan LourySr. Director, Product Management

Agenda Product Vision

Highlights from the Past Year

Roadmap

Community and Resources

Forward-Looking StatementStatements regarding our product development

initiatives, including new products and future product

upgrades, updates or enhancements represent our

current intentions, but may be modified, delayed or

abandoned without prior notice and there is no

assurance that such offering, upgrades, updates or

functionality will become available unless and until they

have been made generally available to our customers.

Personalized Experiences Fueled by Data

BLACKBOARD ALLY SOLUTIONSOne Consistent Approach

Ally for LMS Ally for Web Ally as a Service

Since Ally launched...2.5 BILLIONCOURSE ITEMS SCANNED

70 MILLIONCOURSES PROCESSED

49 MILLIONALTERNATIVE FORMAT LAUNCHESIN THE LAST 12 MONTHS

Fix Your Content Day by the Numbers

131 INDIVIDUALS REGISTERED

117 UNIQUE INSTITUTIONS

108,546 COURSE FILES IMPROVED

30 U.S. STATES

7 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED

AUSTRAILIA

IRELAND

UNITED KINGDOM

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

USA BELGIUM

FRANCE

BLACKBOARD ALLY VISIONPersonalized Experiences for Ally Built on Five Key Pillars

SCALABILITY STUDENT SUCCESSENGAGEMENTCOMMUNITY UNIVERSAL DESIGN

How Do We Determine the Roadmap?

ROADMAP

MAINTENANCEUSER SENTIMENT UX ACTIVITIES

SUPPORT TICKETSPRODUCT VISION FEEDBACK USER GROUPS

USAGE DATA MARKET RESEARCH

How Does the Roadmap Work?

Coming Up Next1 – 3 months

Work in Progress3 – 6 months

Long-term Highlights6+ months

Level of confidence: 95% Level of confidence: 60% – 70% Level of confidence: 30% – 40%

• In development or testing

• High confidence on release date

• Strong candidate for development

• Scope defined

• Don’t always know exact release date

• May change based on feedback, market developments, etc.

• Themes and areas of functionality that will be prioritized, not always exact features

• No confirmed timeline

• Will likely change based on research, feedback, market developments, etc.

Recently ReleasedFeatures and Improvements

Recently released

Webpage feedback Broken link checking

Usage reporting improvements

• Departmental reporting• WYSIWYG alternative formats• Alternative formats in the Blackboard mobile app

Coming Up NextFeatures/Improvements (1 – 3 Months)

Conceptual mock-up subject to change without notice

Ally File Transformer for Bb Assist• Available in Learn through

Blackboard Assist

• No Ally license required

• Empowers users to create alternative versions of content better suited to their needs

TARGET RELEASE – AUGUST*

1 – 3 MONTHS

* US/CAN target; global in Q4 2021


LTI 1.3• Support for LTI 1.3 to take

advantage of recent configuration and security improvements

• Focused on our four major LMS integrations (Learn, Canvas, Brightspace and Moodle)

TARGET RELEASE – AUGUST

1 – 3 MONTHS


Developer Keys for Canvas• Aligning with provider

standards (REST API)

• Granular control over permissions

• Simplifies setup

TARGET RELEASE – AUGUST

1 – 3 MONTHS

Work in ProgressFeatures/Improvements (3 – 6 Months)


Instructor Feedback for WYSIWYG content• Feedback directly embedded in

content editor

• Live score while editing

• Highlights within the editor

IN DEVELOPMENT

3 – 6 MONTHS

WYSIWYG Demo

Longer Term Highlights6 Months+


Ally for Schoology• Provides full Ally integration

into Schoology by PowerSchool

• Increase support for accessible content for K-12 students

LONGER TERM ROADMAP

6+ MONTHS


Institutional Report Engagement• Provide improved readability

for the Accessibility Score over time graph

• Filtering options to allow for additional engagement within the Overview, Courses and Directory (departmental) reports

LONGER TERM ROADMAP

6+ MONTHS


Audio/Video Alternative Format Enhancements• Support for additional audio

and video sources

• Provide captioning, transcript, etc.

• 3rd party (auto) captioning provider to provide easy captioning request workflow from LMS

LONGER TERM ROADMAP

6+ MONTHS


WCAG 2.1 Updates• Extend accessibility checklist

with additional WCAG 2.1 checks

• Focus on general readability and mobile-friendliness

– Orientation (Mobile - AA)

– Reflow (Mobile - AA)

– Text Spacing (Low Vision - AA)

LONGER TERM ROADMAP

6+ MONTHS

Additional Items

Improved / Automated Fixing

• Explore opportunities for easy fixing through instructor feedback• PDF without title• PDF without language

• Explore opportunities for automated fixing• Document with contrast issues

CSV Export Enhancements

• Departmental scores and other applicable data points

• Greater control over data included in the CSV exports

Audio/Video Content

• Support audio alternative format for documents > 100,000 characters

• Automatically create playlist based on heading structure

• Option to highlight text with audio alternative format

External Remediation

• Re-use of remediation by suggesting improvements made elsewhere

• Option to have content manually remediated through integration with expert remediation provider

Ally for Websites and WCM

Web

LMS API

Web• Promotes the value of accessible content outside of the LMS

• Provides a consistent approach to making course and web content more accessible


Instructor Feedback for Files• Add additional feedback flows

• Provide guidance for Microsoft Office and LibreOffice

IN DEVELOPMENT

1 – 3 MONTHS


Web Page Feedback(Partially completed - Ally 1.47)

• Provide content creator feedback for Web Page content

• Highlighting on page where specific issues exist

LONGER TERM ROADMAP

6+ MONTHS


Password Protected Content• Allow for (static) content behind

password to be scanned and checked

• Full range of public and private content

LONGER TERM ROADMAP

6+ MONTHS

Additional Items

Access Control(Partially Completed - Ally 1.52)

• Allow for creation of users (and groups)• Limited access to specific (sub)domains• Only see relevant content

Domain Scoring

• Ally already shows evolution of accessibility score of entire website

• Show accessibility score evolution by (sub)domain

Re-Scan On Demand

• Allow for re-scan of (sub)domain to be triggered from the accessibility report

• Quicker updated report when making changes


Ally as a Service• Accessibility capabilities

provided through easy-to-use APIs– Checking and scoring of content

– Alternative formats

• Suitable for homegrown CMS and library systems outside the LMS

AVAILABLE NOW

NOW

https://tinyurl.com/ILS-doctoralhttp://tinyurl.com/chooseyourformat

Research and impact• Ally has a wealth of course content

and accessibility data

• Continued focus on new data studies, whitepapers and other research

• Community activities around data and research

https://tinyurl.com/ILS-doctoral

http://tinyurl.com/chooseyourformat

Check out these additional resources!

https://go.blackboard.com/book-of-ally

https://tinyurl.com/bballycourse

Join the Ally Community of Accessibility Heroes

usergroup.ally.ac

Let’s continue the conversation WEEK 1

Wednesday, July 14: 9:00am – 9:30am ET

Wednesday, July 14: 12:40pm – 1:10pm ET

WEEK 2

Wednesday, July 21: 12:40pm – 1:10pm ET

Thursday, July 22: 12:40pm – 1:10pm ET

WEEK 1


Thursday, July 15: 10:10am – 10:50am ET

Join our Design Team in the Demo Hub

WEEK 2


Thursday, July 22: 10:10am – 10:50am ET

Interested in providing feedback on the WYSIWYG work? Join Anne-Sophie and the Ally community for a guided group discussion.

Join our PM Team in the Networking Lounge

Don’t forget to rate this session

in the BbWorld app.

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