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Accessibility

Providing equitable access to education for all students

Building your course with attention to accessibility first is important for designing learning experiences where all students can be successful. Accessibility is part of the Universal Design for Learning approach for supporting students with diverse needs. Collaborating with Disability Services can help address specific student accommodations.  Key accessibility course design practices include making content readable to screen readers, captioning videos, and adding alternative text and descriptions for images. For insights on accessibility, explore our latest articles on accessibility.

Accessibility helps everyone

Issues of accessibility can be approached from several different directions. Traditionally, the process of making course materials accessible was reactive, with requests being met as they were made. There are some problems with this. It puts the instructor in a position of having to respond, sometimes last-minute, to a request for accommodation. It also places a burden of advocacy on students with disabilities. Not every student with a disability will voice that disability or advocate for their needs.

Providing accessible materials benefits all learners, even those without disabilities. By providing multiple means of access, such as captions, searchable PDFs, and modifiable text size and color, course materials can be improved and broadened for the benefit of all. 

How do I make my course accessible? 

Review these best practices from the University of Washington’s Center for Universal Design in Education, “20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course.” These tips are particularly beneficial for students who are neurodiverse (e.g., those on the autism spectrum or who have learning disabilities). Consult Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction for more guidance.

  1. Use clear, consistent layouts, navigation, and organization schemes to present content. Keep paragraphs short and avoid flashing content.
  2. Use descriptive wording for hyperlink text (e.g., “DO-IT website” rather than “click here”).
  3. Use a text-based format and structure headings, lists, and tables using style and formatting features within your Learning Management System (LMS) and content creation software, such as Microsoft Office or Google Drive; use built-in page layouts where applicable.
  4. Avoid creating PDF documents. Post most instructor-created content within LMS content pages (i.e., in HTML) and, if a PDF is desired, link to it only as a secondary source of the information.
  5. Provide concise text descriptions of content presented within images (text descriptions web resource).
  6. Use large, bold, sans-serif fonts on uncluttered pages with plain backgrounds.
  7. Use color combinations that are high contrast and can be distinguished by those who are colorblind (color contrast web resource). Do not use color alone to convey meaning.
  8. Caption videos and transcribe audio content.
  9. Don’t overburden students with learning to operate a large number of technology products unless they are related to the topic of the course; use asynchronous tools; make sure IT used requires the use of the keyboard alone and otherwise employs accessible design practices.

Eleven tips for inclusive pedagogy follow; many are particularly beneficial for students who are neurodiverse (e.g., those on the autism spectrum or who have learning disabilities). Consult Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction for more guidance.

  1. Recommend videos and written materials to students where they can gain technical skills needed for course participation.
  2. Provide multiple ways for students to learn (e.g., use a combination of text, video, audio, and/or image; speak aloud all content presented on slides in synchronous presentations and then record them for later viewing).
  3. Provide multiple ways to communicate and collaborate that are accessible to individuals with a variety of disabilities.
  4. Provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate what they have learned (e.g., different types of test items, portfolios, presentations, single-topic discussions).
  5. Address a wide range of language skills as you write content (e.g., use plain English, spell out acronyms, define terms, avoid or define jargon).
  6. Make instructions and expectations clear for activities, projects, discussions and readings.
  7. Make examples and assignments relevant to learners with a wide variety of interests and backgrounds.
  8. Offer outlines and other scaffolding tools and share tips that might help students learn.
  9. Provide adequate opportunities to practice.
  10. Allow adequate time for activities, projects, and tests (e.g., give details of all project assignments at the beginning of the course).
  11. Provide feedback on project parts and offer corrective opportunities.

For more information, read an in-depth tutorial on implementing these tips or watch a video by the author, Sheryl Burgstahler.

Who Can Help? With What?

Disability Services

  • Working with a student with a documented disability and request for accommodation letter

Nanook Navigator

  • Concerns about a student that may or may not be related to disability

Center for Teaching and Learning

Consult a Designer for help with:

  • Proactive efforts to improve overall accessibility in a course
  • Implementing Universal Design for Learning strategies
  • Captioning

UAF Office of Rights, Compliance and Accountability (ORCA)

  • Suspected ADA/Title IX discrimination concerns
  • Student accommodations for pregnancy/childbirth

University of Alaska Human Resources

  • Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA) workplace accommodations for UA employees (including student employees)

Tools for Accessibility Check and Remediation 

Making sure your course materials are accessible is a multi-step process but there are several tools available to you that you can employ to help you check for problem areas and some of these tools will assist you with remediation when it finds issues. 

Canvas Accessibility Checker

This tool is built into the Rich Content Editor, the text creation area where you enter course content. It checks for:

  • Image alt text: Whether images have descriptive alternative text explaining their content. 
  • Color contrast: If the color difference between text and background is sufficient for readability, especially for users with visual impairments. 
  • Heading hierarchy: If headings are used appropriately with a logical order (H1, H2, H3, etc.) 
  • Table structure: Whether tables have clear headers and captions to aid navigation 
  • Link redundancy: If multiple links with the same URL are combined into a single link 
  • Text size: If text is large enough to be easily read

00:07: How do I use the accessibility Checker in the rich content editor? 00:12: If any accessibility issues are detected within the rich content editor the 00:16: accessibility Checker display an indicator. 00:19: To view accessibility issues. Click the accessibility Checker icon 00:25: When an issue is detected the rich content editor highlights the affected area. 00:30: The sidebar displays the accessibility attribute and an explanation of the error. 00:35: To learn more about the accessibility attribute click the information icon. 00:40: If the rich content editor contains more than one issue you can view all issues 00:44: by clicking the previous or next buttons. 00:48: To correct an issue complete the task as noted in the sidebar. 00:51: For instance. If the issue requires that alt text 00:55: be added to an image the sidebar displays a text field for you to enter 00:59: alt text. When you are finished with your changes click 01:03: the apply button. 01:06: The accessibility Checker will apply the fix and display information for the next issue. 01:11: Continue to review and fix any detected issues within the editor. 01:16: When all issues have been fixed or if no issues are detected in the rich content 01:20: editor. The sidebar indicates that no issues exist and will close 01:24: automatically. 01:26: This guide covers how to use the accessibility Checker in the rich content editor.

More information: How do I use the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor?

Anthology Ally for Canvas

Canvas has an accessibility checking tool called Ally enabled in all courses. This tool scans course documents, pages, and images and gives instructors tools to improve the accessibility of their courses. It also generates alternative formats of course documents, providing flexibility that is helpful to students with and without documented disabilities.

What Instructors See

Instructors see a small color-coded gas gauge icon next to course documents and images that indicates their level of accessibility. Clicking on this icon opens a window where instructors can add alternative text to images, or view suggestions for improving the accessibility of the document. 

The Ally Course Accessibility Report can be enabled by going to Settings > Navigation, and adding it to the left-hand menu of the course. Even when enabled, it will always be invisible to students. Instructors can use the dashboard to review and re-upload all course content from a centralized location. 

More information: Ally help page for Instructors

What Students See:

A small “A” icon is present next to documents and page titles in Canvas. Clicking on this icon allows students (and instructors) to download the material in a variety of alternative formats. Depending on the document type, available formats include: mobile-friendly HTML, audio (mp3), ePub, Electronic Braille, and two web-based view options; Beeline Reader and Immersive Reader. Alternative formats are only as good as the document they’re created from – if the original document is not accessible the generated alternative will not be legible. 

Grackle for Google Drive

UA has a license for Grackle Workspace—a Google Drive add-on that provides accessibility checking and remediation functionality. It works in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and can also be used to export accessible PDF documents. 

In order to use it, it must first be enabled:

  1. Once  installed, it can be launched from the  Extensions menu in Docs, Sheets, and Slides
  2. In Google Docs, there’s a top menu item called “Extensions.” 
  3. Go to the “Add-ons” menu and choose “Get add-ons…” 
  4. Search for Grackle Docs 
  5. Authenticate with your UA account
Closed Captioning for Videos

All videos must be closed-captioned with available transcripts. Automatic closed captioning is available through Kaltura (media.uaf.edu) and YouTube, however, the reliability of the captions is not 100%, especially for highly technical content so editing when necessary is advised. 

Professional captioning is available in Kaltura  upon request, contact the CTL Media Team.

What are my responsibilities as an instructor?

Legal Considerations

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974 are the two most important laws governing the accessibility of educational materials. In April 2024, Title II of the ADA was published with specific provisions for specific requirements about how to ensure that web content and mobile applications are accessible to people with disabilities.

What you need to know

  • There is now an April 2026 deadline for web accessibility compliance – aka. the language is transitioning from “should” to “must.”
  • These requirements have potential federal funding ramifications for institutions. 
  • These laws include behind-the-password material, aka. instructional content in Canvas courses and employee software, like AirTable.
  • It includes contracted software.
  • There is an exemption for archived content. 

Additional information is available on ADA.gov

Our Latest Articles on Accessibility