Accessibility

Ensuring an accessible and pleasant experience to all users is a key element of Canvas. The Canvas platform was built using the most modern HTML and CSS technologies, and is committed to W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative and Section 508 guidelines.

Canvas’s accessibility standards include information on:

• Canvas navigation with screen readers

• Canvas accessibility components

• Canvas feature accessibility

• Third-party (LTI) Integration accessibility: When considering integrating new tools into Canvas, accessibility features should always be part of your review.

Accessibility Tools for Canvas Course Material

General accessibility design guidelines can be found in the General Accessibility Design Guidelines document. 

Course Documents

The Ally Accessibility Tool works with Canvas to evaluate the accessibility of your course files and provide actionable feedback. Ally offers guidance and step-by-step instructions to help improve content accessibility.

• Receive feedback on the accessibility of your content

• Improve accessibility with Ally's step-by-step recommendations

In addition to offering insights into content accessibility, Ally automatically generates alternative versions of your files. This allows students to choose the format that best suits their needs while you work on improving accessibility.

In Canvas, the Rich Content Editor includes an accessibility tool that detects common accessibility errors within the editor. You can use the Accessibility Checker to design course content while considering accessibility attributes. This tool only verifies content created within the Rich Content Editor.

Accommodations in Canvas

Instructors may receive requests from the Office of Disability Support Services to provide certain accommodations for students. There are many different types of accommodations students can need due to a disability. Different types of accommodations are needed to help the student get the same information and have the same learning experiences as your other students, depending on the disability (i.e. vision, hearing, physical mobility, cognitive, or other disabilities).

The following are the most common accommodations needed in Canvas.

• Extra time or attempts on quizzes and exams

• Set Different Due Dates for the Same Activity

Provide Extra Time and Attempts on Quizzes

Extended time or extra attempts can be set on quizzes built within Canvas. This is done after the quiz is published, but before it is administered. The process for giving extra time and/or attempts on a quiz is different for Classic and New Quizzes. 

Classic Quizzes 

• Provide Extra Time on a Classic Quiz

• Provide Extra Attempts on a Classic Quiz

New Quizzes 

• Provide Extra Time on a New Quiz

• Provide Extra Attempts on a New Quiz

Set Different Due Dates for the Same Activity

Canvas allows you to set different due dates/times as well as availability dates for an individual student within the same activity assigned to the rest of the class. Click on the links below for step-by-step instructions on how to set different dates for assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions. 

• Assign an assignment to an individual student

• Assign a quiz to an individual student

• Assign a graded discussion to an individual student

You can read more about the most recent accessibility and feature enhancements in the Canvas Product Release Notes. If you have additional suggestions, please contact accessibility@instructure.com.