Pillar 4: Technology, Student Support and Accessibility

[Required Items 32, 33 and 34 — Accessibility for multimedia, images and documents]

Why Is This Important?

By creating accessible multimedia, documents and images, you reduce potential barriers to learning and ensure that all students have adequate access to the materials they need to succeed in your course.

Item #32 – Create Accessible Multimedia

Plan your recorded lectures and other videos with accessibility in mind. Consider how a hearing-impaired or visually impaired student might perceive your recording and add any descriptions, etc., that will help that student have an equitable experience. Captioning your lecture videos and providing transcripts for audio-only materials assists students with hearing impairments, students who have English as a second language, and students who are viewing your videos in environments where having the sound on is not possible.

Item #33 – Create Accessible Images

All content-specific images displayed in assignments/quizzes/discussions, faculty-created documents, and on Canvas pages need alternative text. Alternative text should succinctly indicate what is depicted in the image. Images included for aesthetics only should be marked as "decorative" in Canvas or indicated as decorative in the image properties in documents. Creating alternative text for images on documents and within Canvas is beneficial for a variety of student populations, not just the visually impaired.

It is read by screen readers in place of images, allowing the content and function of the image to be accessible to individuals with visual or certain cognitive disabilities.
It is displayed in place of the image in browsers if the image file is not loaded or when the user has chosen not to view images.
It provides a semantic meaning and description to images, which can be read by search engines or be used to later determine the content of the image from page context alone.

Item #34 – Creating Accessible Documents

Creating accessible documents (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, etc.) is beneficial for a variety of student populations, not just the visually impaired.

Accessible Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents are easily adapted into accessible PDF documents.
Students can interact with the documents by highlighting and taking notes.
The text of accessible documents can also be read by any screen reading software, which means students can listen to the documents on the go!

Use the Microsoft Accessibility Checker on your Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets and make any necessary revisions to ensure that any student can view and understand your document. Then, going forward, create documents that avoid those accessibility problems.

Use the New Rich Content Editor

You can ensure your Canvas course is accessible by using the heading styles in the New Rich Content Editor. Heading styles assist in navigating Canvas content for individuals who use screen readers. Additionally, Canvas has added an Immersive Reader to further assist in making content accessible for all learners. Instructors may also use the Immersive Reader when viewing content within their Canvas courses.

Icon: Pillar by yudi from the Noun Project