Canvas

Use headers to add structure and improve navigation in your Canvas page. The page title is Heading 1, so begin sections with Heading 2.

• Highlight the text.
• Select the appropriate heading (be sure to follow the hierarchy order when determining which heading is appropriate for your text).
• Please refer to the Headings & Structure section of Getting Started with Accessibility for more information on how to arrange headings.

Adding alt text to your images is essential for making them accessible to everyone. Canvas has a few ways you can include alt text for your images. Please refer to the Alternative Text section of Getting Started with Accessibility to learn how to properly describe your images.

Include your alt text when you upload an image to Canvas:

• Go to the Rich Content Editor.
• Click the Images tab (right side of the Rich Content Editor). Click Upload a New Image.
• In the Open box, select Choose File; select your image and click Open.
• In the Alternative text box (Images tab, underneath Choose File), type in the appropriate alt text description.
• Click the Upload button (underneath Alternative text box) and your image will be placed in the Rich Content Editor box.
• Click Save.

Add alt text when embedding a previously saved image:

• Go to the Rich Content Editor.
• Click the Embed image icon (in the menu located just above the box you use to type content for your page).
• In the Insert/Edit Image box (new box), click the Canvas tab.
• Select your image file.
• Enter an appropriate alt text description in the Alt text field.
• Click the Update button.
• Click the Save button and your image should appear in the Rich Content Editor box.

Add alt text after embedding an image:

• Go to the Rich Content Editor.
• Select your image.
• Click the Embed image icon (in the menu located just above the box you use to type content for your page).
• In the Insert/Edit Image box (new box), enter an appropriate description in the Alt text field.
• Click the Update button.
• Click the Save button and your image should appear in the Rich Content Editor box.

If you are using external videos, make sure that they are captioned.

• YouTube, Kanopy, and other video services offer options to turn captions on/off in their options menus. Make sure the captions are accurate; sometimes they aren’t when auto-generated.
• Caption your own videos uploaded directly to or recorded in Canvas with Amara.
• Outsource captioning to ITS: LT or directly to an approved third-party vendor.

Use the equation editor to create equations, formulas, and scientific notations.

• In order for math and scientific symbols to be accessible by screen reader, they must be created using a special typesetting system like LaTex. Canvas has a LaTex Math Editor that you can use in the Rich Content Editor.
• The Canvas Equation Editor Tutorial has step-by-step instructions and screenshots that show you how to create accessible equations.

Scanned PDFs:

• These must be converted through a process called Optical Character Recognition (OCR). If a PDF’s text is searchable, then it has gone through the OCR process. If not, it needs to be converted.
• Another way to determine if a PDF is accessible is if the Adobe Read Aloud feature works on the entire document.

Digitally Created PDFs:

• These PDFs were created with typed text and images that can be selected, edited, deleted, moved, resized, etc.
• Using the Adobe Accessibility Checker will show you how to check your digitially created PDF for accessibility.

If you are using a publisher’s or other third-party content (software, books, documents, videos, etc.), it must be accessible and adhere to Steps 1–5 that are listed here. If the content is not accessible, you’ll need to come up with an alternate accessible plan to provide the information to the student. For assistance with developing an alternate accessible plan, email accessibility@uncg.edu.

• Run a basic accessibility check using the Canvas automatic Accessibility Checker, available through the Rich Content Editor.
• Fix any errors.
• Please note that this is a very basic check; it may not catch all issues.

• Refer to each student’s accommodation letter to identify appropriate accommodations.
• To give an individual student extra time on a quiz, use the Moderate This Quiz feature.
• If needed, you can give a student with accommodations an extended due date on an assignment.