PCG Academia, as an exclusive representative of Blackboard in Poland, will provide Blackboard Ally for Websites – a tool to increase accessibility and attractiveness of content posted on websites – to the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw.

Accessibility is one of the most neglected aspects of websites designed for Polish universities. Ensuring an appropriate level of accessibility of websites maintained by public administration entities (including universities) is a legal obligation under the Digital Accessibility Act.

Equally important, ensuring that the information and materials posted on university websites are accessible translates into a better experience for the prospective applicant or student, increases their time spent on the site, and creates an equal opportunity for all site users, including those with special needs or disabilities, to obtain necessary information.

Blackboard Ally for Websites is an innovative tool that monitors and improves the accessibility of websites. At the University of Physical Education Ally will be integrated both with the university’s main portal and with all websites occurring within its domain. Thanks to the new software, visitors to university’s websites will be able to open the content found there in any format to suit their needs or preferences, e.g:

  • audio – to be listened to at any time;
  • HTML – for convenient display on smartphones and other devices;
  • electronic braille – for display on Braille readers used by people with visual impairments;
  • ePub – for display on e-book readers;
  • OCR – for transforming scans into text format, allowing for copying, pasting, and searching.

For the University of Physical Education authorities and administration, Ally will become an instrument for ongoing control and monitoring of the accessibility of content posted on the institution’s websites. Ally will enable the generation of “on-demand” reports, which at any time will indicate places on the university’s websites that do not meet generally accepted accessibility standards and require correction. Moreover, Ally will provide input to the so-called accessibility declaration, i.e. a description of improvements for people with disabilities that the university has provided on its website.

Blackboard Ally for Websites is a companion solution to Blackboard Ally, a tool supporting the accessibility of materials posted on e-learning platforms, including the Moodle platform.  Blackboard Ally works successfully in hundreds of higher education institutions around the world, including Poland – at the Jagiellonian University, the Cracow University of Technology and the University of Social Sciences.

We encourage you to watch videos below that demonstrate Blackboard Ally for Websites and Blackboard Ally solutions and to contact PCG Academia for a free quote, tailored to your university’s needs and capabilities.

Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally for Websites