Infographics and visual design tools make it easier to create engaging graphics, but they don’t automatically produce accessible results. This page explains how to use tools such as Canva and other similar visual design tools in a way that supports digital accessibility. It also outlines how these tools are best used and when alternative tools should be used.
Why is it Important?
Following accessibility practices while using visual design tools means you’ll produce materials that are both visually engaging and accessible to everyone. It’s the best way to reach as many people as possible.
Canva allows you to easily design engaging visual materials such as flyers and infographics. However, it is not an appropriate tool for creating functional or accessible forms. Canva can make a form look like a form, but it cannot make a form work like a form. Its buttons and fields are only pictures, not real interactive controls. This means users cannot type in fields, submit responses, or navigate using assistive technology.
The following table lists typical Canva form elements and how they actually function after exporting to a PDF form.
What the Canva Element Looks Like Visually
How it Performs in a PDF
Button
static graphic that doesn’t perform an action
Text box styled as input field
Flattened shape that isn’t editable
Checkbox or radio button
Static image; unable to check/uncheck it
Dropdown menu
Static image; unable to activate the dropdown
Hyperlink
Sometimes remains clickable, but not undetectable to screen readers
Recommended Alternatives
To create accessible, functional forms, it’s best to use a tool that is designed for real form controls. These tools will ensure that your form fields, buttons, links, and other interactive elements can be used by everyone, including those who navigate by keyboard only, or use a screen reader to access forms. Here’s a list of alternatives:
Canva is popular for its ease of creating visual design, but it’s not the best option for creating accessible infographics due to its limited accessibility checker and unreliability of preserving accessibility features when exporting to PDF. MS PowerPoint, Word, and Adobe InDesign offer stronger accessibility checks and more dependable accessible PDF exports that require fewer workarounds.
Improving Accessibility in Canva
If Canva must be used, extra care is needed to make designs more accessible. The following tips outline recommended practices.
Concise Text
Keeping text as concise as possible improves clarity, comprehension and accessibility. When text is short and focused, readers quickly get to the message and are more likely to stay engaged.
Use Readable Fonts
Using fonts that are easy to read will make your content easier to understand. Decorative fonts increase cognitive load by requiring readers to decipher how letters are formed in the text before they can process the meaning of the text. Use the guidelines in the Text section of Getting Started with Accessibility.
Using strong color contrast allows people with low vision to see your content easier. To check contrast, use the WebAIM contrast checker.
Highest Contrast
Complementary colors (those opposite each other on the color wheel) provide the highest color contrast, making them ideal for text and graphics color.
Lowest Contrast
Analogous colors (those next to each other on the color wheel) provide the lowest contrast and should be avoided.
Screen readers scan for links, so informative link text is helpful. Links are visually easy to add in Canva. Unfortunately, they are not fully accessible because Canva treats them only as visual styling, and not as an interactive element that it must be to perform as a true link for screen readers. A workaround is available when you export your design to a PDF. See Step 8: Exporting a Canva Design for more details.
Use the Layers panel to arrange your items, add alt text to important images, and mark images as decorative if they should be ignored by screen readers.
Pro Tip: keep the Layers panel open to continuously monitor the order of your items.
open the Layers panel:
Open your design in Canva’s editor.
Select Position from the menu bar.
Select the Layers panel
Optional methods:
Right click any element on the canvas and choose Layer/Show Layers).
Short cut: Alt+1,
Reorder your elements Using A Logical Visual Flow
Your Canva elements must be reordered based on the order that each one should be read. In Canva, this means that the element that should be read last must be positioned as the first element in the Layers panel. This is counterintuitive, but if it’s not done this way, your elements will be ordered backwards when you convert to a PDF or other format.
Move text box layers, and any layers that contain images with alt text up or down the Layers panel (decorative images don’t need to be moved). Make sure the layer that should be read last is in the first position on the panel.
Check your updated layer order. Select each layer in the Layers panel and watch the canvas highlights. If the highlights move in the opposite direction of the panel order, your reading order is correct.
Images, icons, and graphics in Canva need alternative text so people using screen readers can understand the meaning of the visual content that displays on the screen. Use the Layers panel when adding alt text, so each element layer is available to you all at once.
Option 1: select the image from the Layers panel, Select the More options menu (the 3 horizontal dots in upper right corner) and choose Alt Text from the menu
Option 2: right click the image from the Layers panel, and choose Alt Text from the menu
Insert description in the alt text field, or check the Mark as decorative box .
Select the Save button.
Adding headings to your Canva design helps keep you content clear, organized, and easy to navigate. Headings will improve readability, reduce cognitive load, and make your content more accessible and professional looking.
Choose Accessibility from the dropdown, and then select Edit text semantics from the side menu that appears.
In the Text Semantics panel, select the text that needs a heading label. Each row represents a text element from your design.
Select the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner of the selected text element.
From the menu that appears, choose the heading that is appropriate for the text element
Heading 1 for title, heading 2 for subsections, heading 3 for subsections within heading 2 sections, etc.
If needed, rearrange the elements so the reading order matches how the text should be read (may not be needed if elements were previously reordered in the Layers panel).
Check Design Accessibility is Canva’s automated accessibility checker that scans your design and flags common issues that may make content difficult for some users to access.
Canva’s accessibility checker is fairly limited, but it does scan for a few basic issues, including:
color contrast.
the presence of alt text.
hard to read text.
Understanding the Limits of Canva’s Accessibility Checker
Because of its limitations, there are several accessibility issues Canva does not check. It will not:
automatically fix problems,
assign heading roles,
determine logical reading order,
verify the accuracy of alt text descriptions
check captions and transcripts.
These items must be addressed manually to ensure the design is fully accessible.
How to Use Canva’s Accessibility Checker
Go to the File menu and select Accessibility.
Select Check design accessibility. The Design Accessibility panel will open on the right side of the screen. This panel shows 3 categories:
Typography: checks to see if your text is readable. It specifically looks for appropriate font size and language clarity.
Color Contrast: checks to see if text has enough contrast against its background so it’s readable for users with low vision or color-blindness
Alternative text: identifies images, icons, or graphics that are missing alt text and reports how many issues need attention.
Check the results for each category. If no issues are found the category will show a green check. Categories with issues will be flagged by showing the number of issues found per category.
If applicable, select the Issues link within the category. This will open a panel that will allow you to address the issues. Once you fix the issues within the panel, the checker will fix the issues immediately, and will show that the category’s issues have been resolved.
Typography issues link opens the Typography panel, which shows you which elements have hard to read text (font size).
Color Contrast issues link opens the Color Contrastpanel, showing you which elements have poor contrast. The checker will also suggest several colors that will meet contrast requirements.
Alternative Text issues link opens the Alternative Text panel, showing you which images are missing alt text. You can also add alt text or mark the image as decorative in the panel.
The most reliable way to share an accessible version of your Canva design is to export it as a PDF. When you download directly from Canva as a PDF, nearly all accessibility features are preserved — including headings, reading order, and alt text. However, any hyperlinks added in Canva are not retained during the download process and will be removed. The good news is that you can easily restore these links in Adobe Acrobat after converting your design to a PDF. Here’s the best way to convert your Canva design:
When the Download panel appears on the right side of the screen, select:
PDF Standard from the dropdown.
Match reading order to layers checkbox.
Select the Download button, and your design will be saved as a PDF.
Optional: If your PDF is saved in OneDrive, you can share it using a link to make it available to your intended audience. Be sure to choose the appropriate sharing settings based on who needs access.
If you don’t have any links, you are finished. If you do need to add links, move on to the next section.
Adding Links after Exporting a Canva Design
Open your newly saved PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
Go to Edit dropdown menu.
Select Link and then Add or Edit a Link.
Draw a box around the descriptive text or the image that should be a link.
In the Create Link box that appears:
choose Open a web page in the Link Action section.
Select Next, and enter the web address in the Enter a URL for this link text field.
Select OK.
Continue this process for any other links that need to be added.
Recommended Practice: Check Reading Order in Adobe
Whether you have links or not, it’s a good idea to check the PDF’s reading order to make sure content will be read in the correct sequence. Here’s how to check the reading order in Adobe Acrobat:
Open the Reading Order panel, located on the menu panel (right side of the screen)
If the Reading Order icon is not already showing, right click the menu and add it
Review the order of your content boxes and if needed, select and drag to the correct placement
Close the panel when you’re done.
Your Canva design is now available in an accessible format that everyone can use.
While Canva is great for visual design, it places less emphasis on the structure and accessibility features required for fully accessible slide content. MS PowerPoint is a better alternative because it provides built-in slide structure, a robust accessibility checker, clear reading order control, and reliable export to accessible PDFs.
Accessible Canva Slides
If Canva must be used to create slides, additional steps are needed to improve accessibility. The tips outlined in the Canva Infographics section can also be applied to Canva slide presentations to help reduce accessibility barriers.
Canva is best used for creating visual design materials such as posters and flyers, social media graphics, infographics, presentation slide visuals, decorative course content, and marketing/event materials. Canva is a strong design tool, but it is not an accessibility-ready document authoring platform.
When is Canva an appropriate choice?
Use Canva when you need visually engaging graphics, when the final product is visual-only, when you will export to PowerPoint and complete accessibility work there, or when the material is supplemental (not a required academic document).
When should I use an alternative instead of Canva?
Do not use Canva as the final tool for:
course documents (syllabi/readings/instructions).
fillable forms or surveys.
official PDFs.
long text-based materials.
any content users must interact with.
Use Microsoft Word/PowerPoint for accessible documents and presentations, and approved form platforms (like Microsoft Forms and Qualtrics) for forms and other fillable documents.
Can I use Canva to create forms?
No. Forms created in Canva are visual designs only and do not include real, programmatically accessible input fields. Use approved form tools such as Microsoft Forms and Qualtrics, or accessible PDF forms created in Adobe Acrobat.
Is Canva screen reader accessible?
Partially. Basic navigation may work, but complex layouts and some editing controls can be inconsistent for screen reader users. This is why it’s important to export your Canva designs to an accessible file format.
