Accessibility Checklist
Here is a checklist cheatsheet for most major accessibility concerns.
Navigation & Organization
- Navigational links are clear and consistent (disable unused navigation options)
- Modules and module content are ordered clearly, logically, and consistently
- Pages are structured using headings (via the paragraph drop down in the RCE and styles in file documents)
- Headings are descriptive and descend in numerical order
Links
- Links are clickable
- Link text is descriptive and meaningful in context
- Links are validated and tested
Images
- Images have an alternative text (alt-text) that is a complete description
- “Decorative Text” checkbox is checked for decorative images (alt-text field can be left blank)
- Images with text have alt-text that contains the equivalent text
- Images are high contrast when possible
Video & Audio
- Videos are captioned or have transcripts
- Visual-only content in videos has accompanying audio descriptions.
- Audio files have transcripts
- All captions and transcripts have been checked for accuracy
Text Format, Lists, & Tables
- Text is high contrast to background
- Text color is not used alone to convey meaning
- Format lists with editing tools (e.g., RCE in Canvas)
- Tables are used for data (not for formatting content like images)
- Tables have header rows and columns
Files
- PDFs are converted to OCR and all PDF text is selectable/machine readable
- Excel documents contain no empty cells and are used only for organizing data (no images or long blocks of text)
Other Concerns
- Extend time on Quizzes using the “Moderate this Quiz” tool to accommodate students as needed
- Ensure 3rd party tools are accessible and provide alternatives when not accessible
Ways to Validate - Quality Assurance
- Run the Canvas accessibility checker for all rich content editor content
- Use ALLY in Canvas to check for alternative formats and an Accessibility Report
- Check the immersive reader in Canvas for screen reader view
- Run the accessibility checker in other programs, like Word, PowerPoint (use an add-on for Google docs)
- Convert PDFs
- Use Adobe Acrobat Links to an external site. to make scanned image PDFs into OCR (machine readable) PDFs
- Use Adobe’s free conversion website Links to an external site. to covert PDFs into Word files
- Add text directly to a Canvas page
- Contact Brian Josephson in DSPS (Cuyamaca) for assistance with PDFs
- Consult the accessibility checker in the DesignPlus Tools toolbar available in Canvas to check page structure, links, and images
- Validate links in Canvas Links to an external site. (under course settings)
- Request, review, & publish captions for videos create with Canvas studio
- Embed videos that have accurate captions directly in the RCE
- For Youtube videos added to Studio, add captions (request captions from the video owner or try downloading youtube captions using this method
Links to an external site.
if copyright allows) - Refer to Faculty Resources on Canvas for more accessibility guidance
Resources
- CCC Accessibility Center self-paced accessibility courses Links to an external site.
- Canvas Accessibility self-paced course
- STEM Accessibility self-paced course
- National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) cheatsheets Links to an external site.
- Cc Faculty Resources Accessibility module