Making your digital materials accessible can help anyone with a documented disability, but it will also help everyone: people developing their English language skills, people using older technologies to access the internet, people in very loud or very quiet environments where speech is difficult or impossible to understand, for example.
Why Accessibility?
Video example of what using a screen reader is like
Guides to Accessibility in Canvas
Canvas supports a number of screen-readers, and can be operated through keyboard shortcuts. Canvas conforms with the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WAI WCAG) 2.0 AA and Section 508 guidelines.
More information can be found at this Guide to Accessibility within Canvas.
ALT-Tag Decision Tree - This decision tree describes how to use the
altattribute of the<img>element in various situations. For some types of images, there are alternative approaches, such as using CSS background images for decorative images or web fonts instead of images of text.
UDOIT Advantage
UDOIT (Pronounced “You Do It”) is a course-level accessibility checker, built to help you create more inclusive and usable course experiences for students in Canvas. UDOIT works by scanning your entire course, identifying possible accessibility issues, and guiding you in repairing those issues using inclusive design principles.
(UDOIT stands for Universal Design Online Inspection Tool.)
Making Documents Accessible
Zoom
Making Zoom meetings more accessible - Yale University
Panopto
Panopto Captions -
All videos uploaded to Panopto automatically have machine-generated captions added to them. While these captions are always improving, they are not considered ADA-compliant. If you have a student who needs accurate captioning, you can edit the machine-generated captions yourself, or request professional captioning (recommended).
If you have a student who requires ADA-compliant captions, please contact TLC.
Panopto Notes -
Let students or viewers share notes directly in Panopto. For many students, notes are an essential study aid. However, not all students can pay attention to a lecture or video and take notes at the same time. Learn more at How to Take Notes (opens in a new tab).
Who this helps
Students with auditory processing problems whose notes may be sparse or unclear
Deaf and hard of hearing people who need to watch captions
Students with physical disabilities who find typing or writing difficult
Who this also helps
Note-takers who may benefit from better focus, comprehension, and retention
Everyone who uses notes as a study aid
Closed Captioning
If you have a need for professional closed-captioned for videos or transcripts to videos, please contact NCSSM's Teaching, Learning, & Curriculum Support Team (TLC).
Additional Professional Development
Quality Matters Accessibility & Usability Resource Site (Canvas Course)
Designing for Accessibility at NCSSM - Self-paced Canvas course
Create a personalized Accessibility Playlist to learn ways you can improve - you will be prompted to make a copy of a Google doc