Course Accessibility

Making courses accessible ensures that all students — including those with disabilities — can fully participate and succeed. You don’t need to be an expert; knowing a few basics and using the right tools can make a big difference.

What Does Accessible Mean?

Accessible course content gives all students the same opportunity to access information, participate, and learn. Students in your course will have diverse backgrounds, learning preferences, and ways of interacting with materials. The following 7-minute video shares why accessibility is important from a few different perspectives:

Responsibilities

As you create your course, design content that all students can access:

  • Format files and documents with accessibility in mind
  • Provide captions or transcripts for multimedia
  • Use a clear, consistent page layout
  • Choose external resources that also meet accessibility standards

The Digital Accessibility Services (DAS), Disability Resource Center (DRC), and the Center for Instructional Design and Innovation (CIDI) teams are working together behind the scenes to support you. If you have a student in your course working with the DRC, you’ll receive specific instructions to help us make your course accessible for them. 

Accessibility Principles

When creating accessible courses for students, there are a few key principles to keep in mind across all platforms, including:

  • Color Contrast – Ensure text stands out against the background; don’t rely on color alone.
  • Alternative Text – Describe meaningful images; mark decorative ones as decorative.
  • Captions – Add captions to all video and audio.
  • Links – Use meaningful link text instead of “click here.”
  • Lists – Use built-in list tools for order and structure.
  • Headings – Use heading styles, not font size, to structure content.
  • Tables – Keep tables simple, use headers, and avoid images of tables.

Accessibility Tools in Canvas

Now that we’ve covered the core accessibility principles, here are some tools available to help you apply them in Canvas. 

  • Canvas Accessibility Checker – Scans pages, quizzes, assignments, and discussions for common accessibility issues. It gives quick, in-context tips to help you fix problems right as you create content in Canvas.
  • Ally Course Accessibility Report – Provides an overview of accessibility across your course. It highlights areas that need attention and gives guidance on how to improve the accessibility of your materials.
  • TidyUp – Identifies and removes unused files in Canvas. Cleaning up old content helps you concentrate on making the materials students actually use accessible.

In addition, see the Canvas Accessibility Tools Overview for a guide about all accessibility tools available to instructors.

Making Documents Accessible

Documents and presentations are a common way to share information with students. The good news is that tools like Word and PowerPoint have accessibility checkers and built-in features to help you. A few key reminders:

  • Use built-in heading styles (not just bigger/bolder text).
  • Add alt text to images, charts, and tables.
  • Keep tables simple with clear headers.
  • Run the accessibility checker before sharing your file.

PDFs can be more difficult to make accessible. Whenever possible, provide Word or PowerPoint files in their original format instead of converting them to PDF files.

Explore the guides below for step-by-step instructions on making different types of files accessible:

Need Help?

Not sure where to start? We’re here to help. Email accessibility@usu.edu to set up a consultation or join our open office hours.