Testing for accessibility will highlight potential issues that can be experienced by students with disabilities

What does testing for online accessibility entail?

Testing for accessibility can entail using online accessibility checkers, checking that a screen reader can "speak" your content and/or getting feedback from a human.

An online accessibility checker will scan your content to identify areas where compliance to accessibility guidelines might not be met. It will also walk you through how to fix those errors.

Testing won’t capture every issue, but it will highlight priority areas and offer simple solutions so you don’t have to understand the technical specifications.

Basic accessibility areas that will be checked are: use of alt-text to provide a readable text description of images, descriptive links, headings and content hierarchy and colour contrast.

Checking for screen-readers is not straightforward. People who need to use screen readers often have personal preferences as to which software they use. Different screen readers can vary slightly in how they read. Encourage people needing screen readers to let you know of any difficulties they experience. For more information, see Further resources below.

Why is checking for accessibility important?

Going through this process will improve the likelihood that all students understand your teaching materials.

How do I check accessibility?

Use the Canvas in-built accessibility checker
Use accessibility checkers provided by some software developers
Check the Further resources at the bottom for more information on tools like colour contrast checkers.

In-built Canvas accessibility checker

Canvas has an in-built accessibility checker which will highlight accessibility issues needing attention.

The accessibility checker is visible below the editable text area in the Rich Content Editor.

Go to: How to use the Canvas Accessibility Checker

Download a printable copy: How to use the Canvas accessibility checker

Checking accessibility of materials created outside of Canvas?

Microsoft offers built-in accessibility checkers for Word and PowerPoint - see the Office Accessibility Checker

Similarly Adobe Acrobat provides a built-in checker - see Create and verify PDF accessibility using Acrobat Pro

Further resources

Visit the Canvas Community Commons accessibility checker user guide, for a more thorough explanation of the Accessibility Checker in Canvas. For more information about accessibility in Canvas, including some links to screen readers, see the Accessibility within Canvas document.

Third-party accessibility checkers

To check colour contrast

For Word and PowerPoint files accessibility