Canvas has launched a new Course Accessibility Checker aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, providing another way to identify and fix accessibility issues at the course level. Unlike the existing Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor (which scans pages individually), the Course Accessibility Checker scans all Pages and Assignments in a course and reveals the number of issues for each resource.
How to Get Started
The Course Accessibility Checker is visible only to instructors and can be accessed from the Home menu options or the within your course navigation bar.
- Select Home
- Locate and click on the Check Accessibility button within the menu options to the far right of your screen
- Click on the Scan Course button to begin
The tool analyzes your course content and generates a report showing the number of issues that require fixes.
What Issues Does It Detect?
The Course Accessibility Checker scans and detects common issues such as:
- Missing image alt text: Image lacks descriptive alt text.
- Alt text too long: Alt text exceeds 200 characters.
- Filename as alt text: Alt text uses the image filename instead of a description.
- Tables without headers: Table does not include at least one header.
- Incorrect table header scope: Table headers do not define the appropriate scope.
- Tables without captions: Table is missing a descriptive caption.
- Duplicate or broken links: Multiple links point to the same URL or a single link is split by spaces.
- Lists: Content appears to be a list but isn’t formatted as one.
- Skipped heading levels: Headings are not used in sequential order (e.g., H2 followed by H4).
- Heading too long: Heading exceeds 120 characters.
- H1 in content: An H1 heading is used within page content.
- Small text contrast: Small text fails WCAG 2.2 AA contrast requirements.
- Large text contrast: Large text fails WCAG 2.2 AA contrast requirements.
Note
Files created externally from MyCanvas (for example, PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word documents) are not included in the scanning process.
How to Fix Issues?
Once the checker is complete, you can review pages with issues by clicking on the Fix button to launch the radiation wizard. A tray appears showing one issue at a time, highlighting the problem area and describing the issue. Select a fix option and apply the change to resolve it.