Over 10 million files uploaded to Canvas@UD – that is a lot of files! So far this term, over 250,000 files, including MS-Word files, PDF files, and images, have been uploaded in 2024 Fall Canvas sites. Ensuring that course content meets accessibility standards can be a daunting task for instructors just beginning to learn about what accessible content looks like, but a few simple changes can make a big impact.
Where to Start?The first step may be to determine how much work you may have to do using Ally’s Accessibility Report tool available in your Canvas course site. Ally performs two primary tasks:
- Ally scans uploaded documents and some Canvas pages for accessibility issues, determines an accessibility score for content, and provides guidance for how to fix issues.
- Ally provides alternative formats of the content it scans to students, but how well it does so depends on the accessibility of that content.
Once you know your content accessibility score, use the report to help you decide what to fix first. For example, fix content with most severe issues or start with the content that is easiest to fix. Some of the most common accessibility issues in digital content are also some of the easiest to avoid or fix. They include color contrast issues, providing alternative text for images, and providing appropriate structure to your documents. Making just a few changes can have a significant impact on your course accessibility score and the accessibility of your course content.
Not sure where to find the Accessibility Report tool? You may have already enabled the tool on your course navigation menu, but if not, you can enable it in Settings -> Navigation. The tool is not visible on the students’ course navigation menu. Refer to Ally’s Course Accessibility Report website for details about how to interpret and navigate the report.
Not sure about your score? Having a comparison is helpful. As of mid-October, the overall accessibility score of all Canvas sites in the 2024 Fall term is 64.7%. The top accessibility issue is that over 70,000 uploaded images do not have a description or alternative text.
Students with screen readers or other assistive devices may rely on this description to understand the image’s contents and purpose. Having a clear description for an image can help everyone better understand the content of the image and how it relates to the context. If your Canvas content image is decorative only – it adds no contextual value – mark it as decorative when embedding. Please see the Canvas guide, How do I manage alt text and display options for images embedded in the Rich Content Editor? Adding appropriate alternative text is a quick fix to make sure screen readers work effectively by skipping them and to quickly improve your accessibility score.
To find more information about Ally and accessibility of your Canvas content, visit the Canvas Accessibility Overview course and register for the 10-Day Accessibility Challenge in January.
If you are a department chair or college dean looking to help improve the accessibility of Canvas content, request an accessibility report for all courses in your unit. Send an e-mail to canvas-info@udel.edu with course and term information or request a department consultation for an accessibility overview.
