Center for Accessibility and Learning Equity

How to Fix Accessibility Issues in Your Canvas Course

Learn more about accessibility & universal design at webaim.org & cast.org

1. Student Support - The course should include information about the Center for Accessibility and Learning Equity and how students with disabilities may receive accommodations

2. Software - Check the accessibility of all tools and software used in the course

   • Inform students of system requirements, privacy policies, and accessibility

3. Web Pages - Check Canvas content with the Canvas accessibility checker 

   • All images should have descriptive alt text

   • Text and image color contrast should be at least 4.5:1

   • Use logically ordered semantic headers to section content

   • All tables should have a caption and header row or column

4. Web Links and Text - Check that all your links are up to date and have descriptive text

   • Check for broken links and images with the link validator

   • All hyperlinks should have informative text - don’t use phrases like ‘Click Here’

   • Ensure that text has proper grammar, spelling, reading level, and uses plain language when possible

5. Images - In addition to checking that all images have alt text and proper color contrast:

   • Keep image files small (ideally under 100kb). Use a photo editor to resize

   • Complex figures should have rich descriptions and be usable in black and white

   • Images that do not provide content should be marked as decorative

6. Videos - All videos and audio should have correct captions or transcripts

   • For Youtube, see how to use automatic captions and how to edit captions

   • Instructions for Kaltura, Panopto, and Microsoft Stream/Teams

7. Files & Documents - All files and documents should be checked for accessibility

   • Use the Office Accessibility Checker to make Word and PowerPoint accessible

   • Make your Google docs or presentations accessible (see also GrackleDocs)

   • Make PDFs accessible using Acrobat Pro or PAVE or use alternatives to PDF

8. Math - All math equations and formulas should have alt text or MathML representations

   • Use the Canvas Math Editor or MathType app to generate equations

9. Alternative Formats - A separate accessible version of content should be made available when there is no other way to make it accessible

   • You can make a screencast video (with captions) describing the resource

   • Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert PDFs or images to text

10. Assignments & Quizzes - All assignments and online activities should have clear expectations to help students understand how to do them and why they are doing them

    • Use rubrics and see these transparent assignment templates and techniques

    • Give students extra time or separate due dates on quizzes when needed

11. Student View - Check the course in student view for broken or inaccessible functionality

12. Mobile Compatibility - Check the course for usability in the Canvas Student app

How to Prevent Accessibility Issues in Your Canvas Course

1. Modules - Use the modules page as the primary place where you build and organize your course.  Think of it as the table of contents or outline or to-do list for your course.  If you have a reading or assignment or discussion for a particular week or unit, add it to the module for that week or unit.  This way, everything associated with that week or unit will be more visible to you and your students.  You can see in a glance if something is not available or unpublished that shouldn’t be, or if a requirement was not set, and so forth.  See How do I add a module?  and How do I add assignment types, pages, and files as module items?

2. Don’t Copy & Paste – Don’t copy from other courses or websites or documents into Canvas.  If you do, the text will copy over just fine (although it may mess up the text styles and fonts), but images will not copy over like they would when copying and pasting into a Word document.  Images have to be downloaded from the other site (right click on the image and choose ‘save image as’), and then you can upload and insert the image into Canvas, entering alt text when doing so.  When copying content from another Canvas course, use the course import tool to ensure all images and links are fixed.  Use the link validator to check for any broken images or links.

3. Images – When inserting an image, always remember to set the alt text with a description of what is in the image for screen readers.  If you want to embed a very large image, reduce its file size with a photo editor first. See: How do I embed images from Canvas into the Rich Content Editor?

4. Tables – Minimize your use of tables, but when you do use them, set a caption and header row or column in the table properties. Do not set the width of a table or table cell to a fixed value, use percentages instead.  Reduce the number of columns for readability on mobile devices.  See How do I insert a table using the Rich Content Editor?

5. Text Color - You should not use color or font size alone to distinguish text or convey importance. Use headers. See How do I add and modify text in the Rich Content Editor?   Check that color contrast is sufficient using this Color Contrast Checker from WebAIM.

6. Videos – Speak clearly when recording videos and audio so that automatic captions will be more accurate and save you time with making any corrections.  Also, check that in the Canvas Student app the video can play full-screen.  On Youtube, click the share button to copy the embed code for a video and then insert the embed code in your page.

7. Documents - Use the Accessibility Checker when creating Microsoft Office documents.

8. Math - Use the Canvas Math Editor or MathType app to insert equations and formulas.

9. Assignments - Use rubrics and transparent assignment templates and techniques.