Behind the scenes, we run ongoing maintenance to keep Canvas courses up to date, consistent, and aligned with quality and accessibility standards. This page is a running list of that work, so you can see what's changing and whether you need to do anything.
What this means for you
Most of this work happens in the background and needs nothing from you. If you think a change affected your course, or you'd like to ask about opting out, contact our team.
At a glance
| Project | When | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Images | ||
| AI alt text | Weekly | Medium |
| Manual alt text review | As needed | Low |
| Video & captions | ||
| Automated captioning | Ongoing | Low |
| Accommodation captioning | As needed | Medium |
| PDFs & documents | ||
| PDF auto-tagging | Fall 2026 | Medium |
| PDF & HTML language and title | Weekly | Medium |
| Whole-course fixes | ||
| Course accessibility remediation | Ongoing | Medium |
| Canvas find and replace | As needed | Medium |
| Design Plus update | Ongoing | Low |
Weekly
Adds alt text to images automatically so screen-reader users can understand them, and cuts the manual work of describing images. Quiz images are skipped so answers aren't revealed.
Covers — All Canvas images identified as missing alternative text.
Notify — Runs automatically; no message is usually sent.
As needed
A person writes or corrects image alt text where descriptions are missing, inaccurate, or a student has an accommodation — adding accurate, context-aware wording.
Covers — Images found through reviews, accommodations, high-enrollment courses, or instructor requests.
Notify — Accommodation courses are told this will happen; proactively finished courses get a follow-up email.
Ongoing
Captions new media automatically as it's uploaded to Kaltura, giving every student a text version of the video without manual work.
Covers — All audio and video uploaded to Kaltura across all courses.
Notify — Part of normal media processing; no message is usually sent.
As needed
Professionally reviewed, highly accurate captions for courses where a student has a captioning accommodation, ensuring equivalent access.
Covers — Media in courses with an approved captioning accommodation.
Notify — Instructors are emailed ahead of the semester and again when such a student registers.
Fall 2026
Adds accessibility tags and image alt text to PDFs using AI and Adobe tools, so assistive technology can read and navigate them.
Covers — PDFs missing tags, alt text, or structure. Complex files are reviewed separately first. Continues through Spring 2027 depending on usage.
Notify — Instructors are told before it runs, what may change, and that no action is needed.
Weekly
Adds missing language and title information to PDF and HTML files so assistive technology reads them correctly.
Covers — PDF and HTML files missing language or title information. Blueprint courses are processed first.
Notify — Runs automatically; because changes are non-visible, no message is sent.
Ongoing
Finds and fixes accessibility issues inside courses — headings, color contrast, table headers, broken links, alt text, and documents.
Covers — Courses flagged by Ally, reviews, accommodations, high-enrollment work, or instructor requests.
Notify — Only when tied to an accommodation, or after a full course review.
As needed
Fixes the same issue across many courses at once — like contrast problems, broken links, or syllabus template errors.
Covers — All courses that contain the identified issue.
Notify — No message is sent; these are usually one-off fixes across many courses.
Ongoing
Updates course pages to the latest version of Design Plus. We’re making these changes in case you decide to copy your materials over in a future semester. The updates move pages built with the older Design Tools so they work with the new Design Plus, because the older code stopped being supported last December.
Covers — Canvas pages built with the older Design Tools. Your course materials shouldn’t look or feel significantly different, though you may notice minor visual differences.
Notify — Instructors are sent a message about this update.
Get accessibility help Make your content accessible Accessibility policies
Maintained by the CIDI. Questions about work in your course? Contact Digital Accessibility Services. List last reviewed: October 2026.
