Accessibility Trends and Ally Usage: Doctoral Universities

Four-year research universities offer a variety of competitive degree programs delivered in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online formats to students studying around the world. Beyond the rigors of academic study, students maintain busy schedules as student-athletes, student-workers, and participants in a variety of extra-curricular activities and social clubs. Having access to high-quality, flexible digital course content that works better with assistive technologies, mobile devices, and study tools can increase and improve engagement with their course content. Analyzing data collected from the Blackboard Ally software, this paper focuses on content accessibility and tool usage at “Doctoral-granting Universities” as defined by the Carnegie Basic Classification system. The data captured through the Ally tools include accessibility scores of Learning Management System content, student engagement with Alternative Formats of digital learning content, and faculty engagement with Instructor Feedback on accessibility issues in their courses.