Accessibility Features in Brightspace
The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center (TLTC), in collaboration with the Office of Disability Resources (ODR), is seeking to increase awareness about three key accessibility features in available in D2L Brightspace: Anthology Ally (formerly Blackboard Ally), Accommodations and Special Access, and the built-in Accessibility Checker.
How to Use Ally in Brightspace
Anthology Ally (formerly Blackboard Ally) is available in Brightspace to help faculty improve the accessibility and usability of course materials. Ally can also generate alternative formats of accessible content (e.g. audio, e-reader, electronic Braille, etc.), allowing students increased flexibility. We encourage instructors to use it as a guide for improving the quality of existing and new digital course content.
To open the Ally interface, simply upload or create content in the course and click on the gauge icon that appears next to the item. The indicator is color-coded and uses a visual pointer to indicate the accessibility score. Follow the prompts to work through improving the document’s accessibility.
More information about working with Ally to improve course documents can be found at the TLTC’s website.
How to Add Extra Time to Brightspace Activities
Instructors have the ability to allow additional time on quizzes and other activities by using the “Accommodations” feature at the individual student level and the “Special Access” option at the individual activity level.
Add “Accommodations” to a Particular Student in Brightspace:
To access a specific student’s “Accommodations” options in Brightspace:
- from the course Navbar, click on Course Management > Roster
- click on the chevron next to the student whose quiz accommodations you want to add/view, and then click “Edit Accommodations”
- under the “Timing” heading, select “Modify Time Limit” and choose to either increase the original quiz time by a factor, or add extra time in minutes
- click the “Save” button to update that student’s accommodations
More about available Accommodations in Brightspace can be found at their official help documentation.
Special Access:
You can modify the access to a Quiz or Assignment for particular students using the Special Access setting, which you can find under the “Availability Dates & Conditions” section at the Quiz or Assignment’s setup area. The Special Access options allow you to add extra time and/or change the due date for certain students. Please see the following Brightspace help pages for more information:
- Set release conditions and special access in Assignments
- Add special access to an assignment
- Create and configure a Quiz
The Brightspace Accessibility Checker
Please note that the recent Brightspace release (check out the full February 2025/20.25.02 release notes) included an update to the Brightspace Editor specific to the Accessibility Checker icon.
The updated Accessibility Checker icon is now a human figure within a circle, replacing the eye symbol with a check mark, for better clarity and to improve user recognition and understanding.
The built-in Brightspace Accessibility Checker, which you can access from the HTML editor (look for the human figure within a circle icon) is available to all instructors and content authors (e.g. instructors, learning assistants, graders, course librarians, etc.) who can create or edit HTML pages in Brightspace courses. Simply run an accessibility check to identify and quickly correct common accessibility errors on the fly. More about the Accessibility Checker in Brightspace is available at their official help documentation.
Digital Accessibility
- For basic guidance on making your content accessible, check the Electronic/Digital Accessibility page
- Work with your liaison librarian to determine if you have materials that can be upgraded to ebook format for your course
- Avoid hand scanning. See the Scanning and Linking Best Practices guide if scanning can’t be avoided.
Brightspace and Accessibility Support
For additional support with using Brightspace, please connect with the SUNY Online Help Desk.
For questions regarding accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Resources.
Learn more about creating accessible and barrier free course content, please contact Rebecca Oling, Director of Digital Accessibility