This article will describe the issues with scanned PDFs and how to fix them.
Overview
Some instructors like to scan pages of books for students. However, scanned texts are very inaccessible, and create many challenges for students. When you come across a scanned PDF, do your best to replace it with a proper digital text document.
Steps to Improve Scanned Text Documents
Try to find a text version of the document online. Google has very helpful ways to do this. Try searching "[Name of file] filetype:pdf"
If you do this, make sure the document is not also scanned! If you can't tell if the file is scanned or not, try to highlight some of the text. If you can't highlight the text, don't use the file.
If you can't find a text version of the file, you can add a library reference to Ally to help students who might need alternative formats
As a last resort, Ally will perform optical character recognition (OCR) on the document to try to better identify text elements. Unfortunately, this is not a final solution, so it won't improve your score. You'll want to replace the scanned version when possible
Content adapted from the Blackboard Ally Communication and Adoption Toolkit - CC BY 3.0
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