Introduction
Digital accessibility ensures that a diverse group of users can access and engage with your content.
Proactively addressing the needs of all learners enrolled in your course will make a big difference in creating an inclusive learning environment. Accessibility is essential for some and beneficial for all.
Review our standards to understand the essential elements of an accessible course:
- Standard 1: The course organization and content facilitate readability and ease of use.
- Standard 2: Images include meaningful alternative text. Image placement does not hinder learner navigation.
- Standard 3: Color contrast is distinguishable but non-essential for understanding content.
- Standard 4: Tables are simple and have meaningful and concise alternative text. Tables are logical for all learners.
- Standard 5: Hyperlinks are simple, meaningful, and intuitive for all learners.
- Standard 6: Media is rich with captions, audio descriptions, and a non-media alternative.
- Standard 7: All publisher and vendor technology meets WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility guidelines and clearly commits to accessibility.
- Standard 8: All external content, web pages, Open Educational Resources (OERs), readings, and articles meet accessibility guidelines.
- Standard 9: Documents include indicators allowing learners to navigate content seamlessly.
- Standard 10: The course utilizes Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to improve navigation, access to support resources, and ease of use to facilitate an equitable learning experience for a variety of learners.
To assist you in designing your Canvas course with accessibility in mind, we have developed this resource book.