Canvas for RAs

Why Accessibility Matters

The Department of Justice (DOJ) introduced a significant change to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring public entities, including universities, to ensure digital content, including course materials, websites, documents, media, and applications for teaching and learning are accessible to individuals with disabilities by April 2027. 

To satisfy this new law, digital materials must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AAA, which requires content to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Digital accessibility is about far more than compliance; it ensures and reflects our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Accessible materials ensures all students have the ability to learn, have what they need to be successful, and enhances the usability of content for all. 

Proactively creating accessible content saves time and resources. Designing with accessibility in mind reduces need for accommodations, as well as the labor required of disabled people to request access needs to participate. Once you learn what accessibility looks like and how to implement it in your work, you can make accessible, equitable content for all from the beginning.

Your Digital Accessibility Task

This semester, as a department-sponsored RA, you will be assisting the department in preparing to be in compliance with Title II by April 2026. You will assist in transitioning existing Canvas sites for courses that will be taught in fall 2025 to meet digital accessibility standards. Sophia Paschke, Communications & Curriculum Associate, will guide and train you throughout this project. 

This project will be split into different "waves" of work. To begin, you will complete the "Digital Accessibility: Foundations" and "Digital Accessibility: Create Accessible Canvas Course Sites" trainings under "Digital Accessibility Training." You will then learn about the core skills and strategies listed under "Make Digital Content Accessible." Review the "Impact," Dos and Don'ts," and "How-to" for each. After these informational trainings, you will complete the "Digital Accessibility Practice" training document. Upon completing the training document, meet with Sophia Paschke so she can review your work.

Once you have completed your trainings and reviewed the skills, you will begin the first wave of working on the Canvas sites for fall 2025, one site at a time. You will bring each Canvas page into compliance with regard to the standards listed under "Make Digital Content Accessible." I.e. edit the Canvas pages to be accessible with regard to contrast, text, headings, lists, tables, links, images, and videos & audio. After you finish each page, utilize the digital accessibility tracker(s) and checklist(s) outlined below to ensure that all content meets these accessibility standards.

After all fall 2025 Canvas sites and their content have been made compliant with regard to these standards, we will begin the subsequent waves. These subsequent waves will include PDFs, documents, syllabi, and course slides. Do not work on these elements until we begin these waves; more training and information about how to complete this work is forthcoming.

Digital Accessibility Fundamentals

  • Contrast: Make sure foreground and background colors and other visual indicators contrast each other.
  • Text: Use font type & space, text alignment, white space, and line length to ensure the structure of your digital text matches its meaning.
  • Headings: Structure digital content with paragraph styles in documents.
  • Lists: Present key concepts, sequences, and like items of more than two as lists where possible.
  • Tables: Simplify tables and include a header row and/or column and a summary, either in a caption or alt text.
  • Links: Write links that are concise, descriptive, and meaningful out of context.
  • Images: Include only meaningful images in your digital products, optimize them for online viewing, and provide contextual information.
    • Alternative Text: Add alternative text, or "alt text," to every meaningful image in digital content.
  • Videos and Audio: Include both human-edited captions and audio descriptions in videos and transcripts in audio-only content.
  • Slide Presentations: Use preset layouts, readable fonts, descriptive links, and alternative text in your slides.

Digital Accessibility Training

  • Digital Accessibility: Foundations: Learn what digital accessibility means, why it matters, and how it can be incorporated into your work.
  • Digital Accessibility: Create Accessible Canvas Course Sites: Learn how to apply accessibility concepts to content in an online course site. Complete these modules:
    • Module 0: The Importance of Accessible Course Sites.
    • Module 1: Using the Rich Content Editor to Make Accessible Content.
    • Module 2: Ensuring Course Content and Resources are Accessible. Only complete 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, and 2.12.
    • Module 5: Scanning Your Course Site with UDoIT.
  • Digital Accessibility Training. Create a copy of this Google Doc to test your knowledge and application of digital accessibility.
  • Digital Accessibility Training: Slides. Create a copy of this Google Slides presentation to test your knowledge and application of digital accessibility.

Test for Accessibility

Conduct accessibility checks early and often as you update digital content. Accessibility checkers highlight areas that might be problematic for people with disabilities, as well as anyone using assistive technology. Two UMN-supported accessibility checker tools are built in to Canvas.

These tools cannot find all accessibility issues, and they will not be able to tell you whether content makes sense or is out-of-date. Accessibility checkers and manual assessment must work in tandem; do not rely on accessibility checkers to tell you what is problematic, use them as a tool to assist you.

Canvas Site Checklists

After you have made content accessible and tested for accessibility, review the below checklists. Please note, not all items on the checklists will be relevant to your work for this project.

Additional Resources