Customer Spotlight
The University of Law: Advancing Accessibility with Blackboard Ally
Institution
The University of Law
Department
Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT)
Blackboard Community Involvement
2nd Place Fix Your Content Day Global Winner
Social
Meet The University of Law’s Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching Team
The University of Law doesn’t see accessibility as a compliance task, but rather a fundamental part of creating meaningful learning experiences. The institution’s Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT) directorate works closely with academic teams to ensure that digital course materials are designed around inclusivity from the start.
This commitment was especially visible during Fix Your Content Day, a global initiative that brings institutions together to improve the accessibility of course materials using Blackboard® Ally. With strong internal coordination and a shared sense of purpose, the University of Law mobilized its team for this single, high-impact day.
The Team’s Impact: Fix Your Content Day 2025
The results were astounding: In just 24 hours, The University of Law completed 29,362 accessibility improvements, earning second place globally in the challenge!
Faculty and staff worked collaboratively to address common accessibility barriers, such as unstructured documents, missing alternative text, and inaccessible PDFs, making course content easier for all students to navigate and use. In addition to leveraging Ally’s built-in accessibility indicators and reporting capabilities, the TELT team also credits its success to the introduction of the PDF Quick Fixes tool, which surfaces issues directly within the course and enables guided fixes right inside the workflow.
“Without these recent innovations in Ally, [we] imagine hundreds of files would have stayed low-scoring. Being able to fix them directly in the browser really helps and is a much more straight-forward workflow,” the team shared.
The combination of strong collaboration and intuitive tools made the initiative especially successful. The TELT team prepared colleagues ahead of the event with guidance on high-impact fixes and remained available throughout the day to answer questions and support progress. At the same time, Ally’s color-coded accessibility scores and step-by-step guidance made it easy for instructors to identify issues and understand how to resolve them quickly, directly within courses. Together, with the added motivation of friendly competition as the University of Law climbed the leaderboard, accessibility improvements that might otherwise feel complex became manageable, real-time updates to course materials.
“You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. Ally shows you where the problems are and lets you take action immediately.”
- Steve Cherry, Learning Technologist, The University of Law
Pictured from left to right: Jack Gibbons, Craig Lowe, Steve Cherry, Claire Gardener (Blackboard), Martyn Rollason (Blackboard), and Nicolas Sequeira (Blackboard)
A True Partnership: The University of Law and Blackboard
While global recognition was a proud moment, The University of Law views Fix Your Content Day as just one milestone in an ongoing journey. Reflecting on the experience, the team shared, “Ideally, you don’t want to win Fix Your Content Day again, because you’re doing the right things all year round.”
The momentum generated during the event continues through faculty training, learning design support, and everyday use of Ally’s insights to improve course content over time. By embedding accessible design practices directly into the way learning materials are created and maintained, The University of Law is building a culture where inclusive learning isn’t an initiative—it's standard practice.
“Our team approached the challenge with purpose and passion, turning a global event into meaningful action. Working together, they identified and fixed accessibility issues such as missing alt text, unclear headings, low-contrast documents and files that are not screen-reader friendly. At its core, this competition highlights our commitment to equity and ensuring every student can access content that truly supports their learning.”
- Kerri Trounce, Director of Technology Enhanced Learning & Teaching, The University of Law
We'd like to thank the TELT team at The University of Law for participating in Fix Your Content Day, and for continuing to be accessibility champions every day!
Special thanks to:
Bharat Ankesgwarapu, Bharath Selvarajan, Carmela Tumalangon, Cheriza Magdayo, Craig Lowe, Elaiza Miano, Eloise Jacob, Indira Chivikula, Jack Gibbons, Karin Klotz, Kerri Trounce, Mathew Carl, Max Harvey, RajKumar Yendru, Rexc Bordeos, Rindu Kondaparthy, Ryan Ramon, Sam Sarkar, Steve Cherry, Steph Webb, and Tejasree Gunda.
Ready to explore upgrading your accessibility strategy? Learn more about how Blackboard Ally can integrate seamlessly into your LMS today.