Accessibility

Use Ally and the Canvas Link Validator to check for accessibility issues in your Canvas courses. The bottom of this page has more info and tutorials. There are some issues they may miss, however (see below). First, let’s look at accessibility more generally.

Why is Accessibility Important (and the Law)?

All students should have equal, barrier-free access to college and course materials. The goal of full course accessibility is for all students to be able to interact with course content and engage with the instructor. Accessibility is a legal requirement, and there are ethical and pedagogical reasons for making your courses accessible, as well.

Integrating accessibility into online course materials is crucial for fostering an inclusive and equitable educational environment. While it may initially appear as an additional task, the importance and necessity of ensuring that all course materials are accessible to every student cannot be overstated. Below are the ethical, legal, educational, and professional imperatives for making online course content accessible.

Ethical Responsibility

Providing equal learning opportunities is a fundamental ethical duty for educators. Accessibility is not merely a technical requirement; it is a matter of fairness and justice. Students with disabilities deserve the same opportunities to succeed as their peers. Ensuring that educational materials are accessible guarantees that all students, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities, can fully participate in their education. This commitment to inclusivity reflects core educational values of equity and respect (Burgstahler, 2020).

Legal Obligations

Educational institutions must comply with legal mandates such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), which require equal access to educational opportunities for all students (U.S. Department of Education, 2021). Non-compliance can lead to significant legal repercussions, including lawsuits and loss of federal funding. Ensuring accessibility protects institutions from these risks and underscores a commitment to legal and ethical standards.

Enhanced Learning for All

Accessibility benefits the entire student body, not just those with disabilities. The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) advocate for creating materials that accommodate a wide range of learning needs, thereby improving the learning experience for everyone (CAST, 2018). For instance, captions on videos assist not only students with hearing impairments but also non-native English speakers and those who prefer to read along while listening. Clear, well-organized documents aid in comprehension and retention for all students. Ultimately, accessible materials lead to better teaching and learning outcomes for the entire classroom (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

Quality of Education

Accessible course materials often result in higher-quality content. Striving for accessibility encourages educators to pay greater attention to clarity, organization, and usability. This focus enhances the overall effectiveness and engagement of teaching materials (Tobin, 2014). Additionally, accessible courses can reach a broader audience, including lifelong learners, working professionals, and international students, thereby extending the impact and reputation of educational programs.

Professional Growth

Embracing accessibility is a valuable opportunity for professional development. Learning to create accessible materials and incorporating UDL principles can enhance teaching skills and increase versatility and effectiveness as an educator (Scott, McGuire, & Shaw, 2003). These skills are increasingly in demand and can differentiate educators in a competitive academic environment.

Misconceptions About Accessibility

Here are some common arguments and misconceptions against making online courses accessible for students, along with refutations for each:

1. It’s Too Expensive

Misconception: Making courses accessible requires a significant financial investment that institutions cannot afford.

Refutation: While there may be initial costs associated with making online courses accessible, the long-term benefits far outweigh these costs. Accessibility ensures that more students can participate in and complete courses, potentially increasing enrollment and retention rates. Additionally, many accessibility features, like using proper HTML tags or providing text descriptions, are low-cost or free.

2. It Takes Too Much Time

Misconception: Making courses accessible is too time-consuming for instructors and course developers.

Refutation: While integrating accessibility features can take time initially, many practices, such as using accessible templates or tools, can streamline the process. Once instructors become familiar with accessibility guidelines, the additional time required becomes minimal. Moreover, accessibility improvements often benefit all students, not just those with disabilities. Artificial Intelligence tools can greatly speed up making course materials accessible.

3. Only a Few Students Benefit

Misconception: Accessibility improvements are only necessary for a small percentage of students, so the effort is not justified.

Refutation: Accessibility benefits a wide range of students, including those with temporary disabilities, non-native speakers, and students with different learning preferences. Universal design principles enhance the learning experience for everyone, not just those with documented disabilities.

4. Technical Complexity

Misconception: Making online courses accessible is too technically complex and requires specialized knowledge that educators may not have.

Refutation: There are many resources, tools, and training programs available to help educators and developers learn how to make their courses accessible. Many learning management systems (LMS) have built-in accessibility features, and there are guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that provide clear instructions.

5. Lack of Awareness

Misconception: Educators are not aware of accessibility issues, so it’s not a priority.

Refutation: Increasing awareness through training and professional development can quickly elevate the importance of accessibility. Once educators understand the impact of accessibility on student success, they are more likely to prioritize it in their course design.

6. Fear of Reducing Course Quality or Creativity

Misconception: Accessibility requirements will stifle the creativity and quality of the course content.

Refutation: Accessibility does not hinder creativity; it often enhances it by encouraging innovative approaches to content delivery. Accessible design encourages the use of multiple formats and flexible options, which can lead to more engaging and inclusive courses.

7. Accessibility Features Will Be Misused

Misconception: Students without disabilities will take advantage of accessibility features, leading to unfair advantages.

Refutation: Accessibility features are designed to level the playing field, not to give any group an unfair advantage. Furthermore, these features can support a diverse range of learning styles, which benefits the entire student body.

8. It’s Not a Legal Requirement

Misconception: There are no legal requirements to make online courses accessible.

Refutation: In many regions, including the United States and European Union, there are legal requirements for educational institutions to provide accessible learning environments. Non-compliance can result in legal consequences and damage to the institution’s reputation.

9. Misunderstanding of Accessibility Scope

Misconception: Accessibility is only about adding captions or transcripts.

Refutation: Accessibility encompasses a wide range of considerations, including website navigation, screen reader compatibility, visual design, keyboard accessibility, and more. It is about creating an inclusive learning environment that considers various needs and preferences.

10. Perception of Accessibility as an Afterthought

Misconception: Accessibility can be added after the course is created, if needed.

Refutation: Accessibility should be integrated from the beginning of course design. Retrofitting accessibility features can be more challenging and costly than incorporating them from the start. Proactive design ensures that all students can access the content without delays or additional barriers.

References

• Burgstahler, S. (2020). Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education: A Universal Design Toolkit. Harvard Education Press.
• CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
• Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. ASCD.
• Scott, S. S., McGuire, J. M., & Shaw, S. F. (2003). Universal design for instruction: A new paradigm for adult instruction in postsecondary education. Remedial and Special Education, 24(6), 369-379.
• Tobin, T. J. (2014). Increase online student retention with universal design for learning. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 15(3), 13-24.
• U.S. Department of Education. (2021). Office for Civil Rights Annual Report to the Secretary, the President, and the Congress. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/ocr/index.html

How to Fix Accessibility Issues in Your Canvas Course

Short link to printable handout: bit.ly/checkaccessibility | Video walkthrough

• Student Support – Your course should include information about disability services at your institution and how students with disabilities may receive accommodations.
• Software – Check the accessibility of all tools and software used in the course
  • Inform students of system requirements, privacy policies, and accessibility
• Web Pages – Check content with the Canvas accessibility checker or Ally
  • All images should have descriptive alt text
  • Text and image color contrast should be at least 4.5:1 & use sans-serif fonts
  • Use logically ordered semantic headers to section content
  • All tables should have a caption and header row or column
• 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 text has proper grammar, spelling, reading level, uses plain language
• Images – In addition to checking that all images have proper alt text and 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
• Videos – All videos and audio should have correct captions or transcripts
  • For Youtube: download captions, use automatic captions & how to edit captions
  • Instructions for Canvas Studio and Microsoft Stream/Teams
• 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 w/Acrobat, PAVE, PAC 2021 or use alternatives to PDF
• Math – All math equations and formulas should have alt text or MathML representations
  • Use the Canvas Math Editor or MathType app to generate equations
  • Convert hand-drawn equations using tools like OneNote math assistant.
• 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
• 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
• Student View – Check the course in student view for broken or inaccessible functionality
• Mobile Compatibility – Check the course for usability in the Canvas Student app

How to Prevent Accessibility Issues in Your Canvas Course

• 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?
• 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 descriptive 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.
• 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?
• 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?
• 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.
• 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.
• Documents – Use the Accessibility Checker when creating Microsoft Office documents.
• Math – Use the Canvas Math Editor or MathType app to generate equations & formulas
• Assignments – Use rubrics and the transparent assignment template

Anthology Ally

Ally is a tool for proactive accessibility that integrates with Canvas. Ally helps build a more inclusive learning environment and improve the student experience by helping faculty take clear control of course content with usability, accessibility, and quality in mind.

Limitations of Ally

Some things Ally doesn’t catch include:

• Ally can’t check your publisher site or other external resources.
• Ally will tell you what images need alt text descriptions, but you will need to add alt text to images in the Canvas rich content editor rather than in Ally to ensure the alt text copies to the next course.
• Ally can’t detect broken links or broken links to images or files. Instead use the built-in Canvas link validator under Settings. See: How do I validate links in a course?
• Ally may not accurately detect if a video has accurate captions/transcript (with proper punctuation, etc.). If you can’t edit and fix the captions yourself (such as with someone else’s YouTube video), there are some AI tools that can generate much more accurate transcripts, such as Whisper from OpenAI.
• Ally can detect if an image has a description (alt text) or not, but not if the alt text accurately describes the content of the image. For making complex charts or diagrams accessible, see resources such as these:
  • AI Image Accessibility Generator – and see also How to Write Alt Text
  • Complex Images for All Learners: A Guide to Make Visual Content Accessible
  • How to make charts and graphs more accessible
  • Charts & accessibility