Digital Accessibility
Create Accessible Courses
Creating an accessible course does not have to be a daunting task. We have powerful tools like ALLY and the Canvas Accessibility Checker available in Canvas courses. We also have resources that are a part of our ongoing commitment to creating inclusive and accessible learning environments.
Check out the tools and resources below to learn more.
Canvas ALLY is a tool that enhances the accessibility of online courses and course materials.
This tool helps you:
- Automatically check your course content for accessibility issues
- Provides step-by-step guidance on how to fix them
- Generates accessible alternative files students can download, such as audio files, electronic braille, and other options.
Videos & Guides:
Watch ALLY Instructor Feedback (length of time 1:42)
Watch ALLY Course Report (length of time 1:14)
Watch ALLY Alternative Formats (length of time 0:58)
Canvas courses have a built-in tool known as the Canvas Accessibility Checker. It's seamlessly integrated into the Rich Content Editor in Canvas, offering an easy way to ensure your course content is accessible to all learners.
The Canvas Accessibility Checker is designed to identify and highlight potential accessibility issues in your course content, from text to images and everything in between. It not only identifies these issues, it also offers practical suggestions for fixing them.
How to use the Canvas Accessibility Checker as an instructor (written).
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines (UDL page)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.
- 20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course (University of Washington page)
Sheryl Burgstahler (a leader in accessible course design) follows twenty basic guidelines when she develops her online courses. - Accessibility of Online Content (Portland Community College page)
Resources to help faculty and staff meet the WCAG 2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) AA standards. - Penn State course accessibility tips (Penn State page)
This is information relating to general course accessibility and how to work with STEM/technical content and foreign language content.
- 20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course (University of Washington page)