Ally Accessibility Checker: A tool created by UF Health » Ally Accessibility Checker » Support & Training Web Services » UF Health

Ally is an accessibility checker tool designed for UF Health websites. Ally can scan your entire site or a single page for common web content accessibility issues. It will then tell you how you can fix the issue.

Ally automatically checks for common accessibility issues you can fix, like missing image descriptions, unclear links, and problems with headings. These are the issues that make the biggest difference for people using screen readers, keyboards, and other assistive tools. It’s meant to be a simple tool that will not clutter up a report with issues that are complex technical problems which require a web designer/developer to resolve.

Check your site with Ally

The Ally tool is only available for users on the UF Health computer network through a VPN connection or using their work device.

Ally homepage screen shot with the options for "Check this entire site" selected in the search bar.

How do I get started using Ally?

Visit the Ally website
On the homepage paste the URL of your website or a webpage into the search bar.
Choose the option to “Check this entire site” or “Check just this page” inside the search bar to tell Ally what the URL is that you’d like to scan.
Click the “Check Now” button to start the scan.

As the tool runs you will see how it progresses through the scanning process.

How long does this take?

A 500-page site takes about 6-7 minutes to test, with potential for some extra time waiting in line. Larger sites can take hours.

Getting your results

You can bookmark the page and return later — your results will be there. Alternatively, you can enter your email address in the “Notify Me” field to wait for Ally to email you a link to your report when it’s completed.

Screenshot of a helpful modal window provided by the Ally tool describing a accessibility problem and recommending how to fix the issues. The text reads, "Link text is missing or unclear
Required; 5 items have this issue

Every link needs descriptive text that tells visitors where it goes. Software that reads pages aloud announces link text to help people navigate, so vague phrases like "click here" or "read more" leave people without context. This link has no text or text that doesn't explain its purpose.

Try one or more of the following
Make sure the link has visible, meaningful text
If the link wraps an image, the image's alt text becomes the link text. Make sure it describes where the link goes, not just the image. Nearby captions are not a substitute
Replace generic phrases like "click here" with specifics like "View the campus map"
The link may be empty or invisible. If this seems to be the case reach out to webservices for guidance with a link to this page."

When viewing your report for a webpage or a website, you will see a list of issues found that need to be addressed by you. You can click on the button to the right of the issue to see that issue on your website. Ally will navigate you to that webpage and highlight the issues found and provide an overlay window that describes the issue, how to resolve it, and how to learn more about it. Each issue found by Ally has a unique URL that you can share with Web Services or other editors on your site for collaboration.

As you update your website for accessibility issues found through the Ally tool, you can rescan your site and see the issues previously found disappear once they are resolved for quick feed back!