What Are You Using for Accessibility Checking in Canvas?

[TraceyDeCicco]

We are transitioning to Canvas and my CIO wants to explore all accessibility tracking options. We know that Canvas has native functionality. Is anyone using something other than the Canvas Accessibiility Checking functionality?

[Mikee]

We're using Ally (nee Blackboard) to provide direct accessibility indicators in the environment. We're also dipping our toe in the water for the Instructure offering to be run simultaneously. 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

When I was a Canvas administrator in higher education, we used the UDOIT accessibility checker from the University of Central Florida (UCF).  UDOIT scans your entire course all at once and gives you a report of all accessibility issues that need to be addressed.  And, it allows you to make those corrections right within the UDOIT interface…rarely ever needing to make the edits on the page(s) that have issues.  In our case, we worked with our on-campus IT staff to install UDOIT in our own local servers.  However, there is also a cloud-based version available from Cidi Labs.  I’ll provide you with some links to each so that you can determine what might be best for you.

• Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) - UCF (Look at the section at the bottom called “Current Status” for how you can get the source code for free)
• UDOIT Cloud Accessibility Tool | Cidi Labs (I *think* there is a cost to this option…but may also be available as part of a package deal, too.)
• Accessibility - Instructure Community  — This page contains release notes from Jacob Bates at UCF about UDOIT updates to their product.

Hopefully, these links will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this…thanks!

[TraceyDeCicco]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for responding! I've heard great things about UDOIT. Do you feel that its functionality is comparable to Ally?

Thanks again,

Tracey

[Chris_Hofer]

@TraceyDeCicco ...

Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to use Ally, so I couldn't even begin to make a comparison.  Maybe you could reach out to Cidi Labs to request a demo of UDOIT?  They are a pretty great team of people, so you might have some luck getting some more info from them!