Features Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2025-05-17)

[KathrynMetz]

Looking to discuss these features from the 2025-05-17 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

New Features

• New Quizzes: Text Block
• Discussions: Permalink for Discussion Entries

Other Updates

• Accessibility Updates: Enhanced Structural Clarity- All Users
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Error Feedback- All Users
• Gradebook: Gradebook Icon Update for LTI Assignment and Grade Service

ADD FEEDBACK FOR THESE FEATURES IN Q&A TOPIC

• This topic is for feature discussion only—Please share use cases, best practices, questions, clarifications, etc. regarding this feature.
• Please thread replies as possible to keep posts organized. This will help everyone to track discussions and to participate.

ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK—WHERE TO POST IDEA SUGGESTIONS AND SUBMIT BUG REPORTS

• Idea requests for the Product Team to consider should be submitted in ideas.canvaslms.com . This is the best way to ask for additional or alternative functionality than what is included in the release. Linking to the related idea here so others can find it is encouraged!
• Bug reports should be submitted to Canvas Support. This way, cases can be connected and uniform updates can be provided to those involved. Bugs will not be triaged in this thread

[theJBRU]

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@KathrynMetz wrote:

Other Updates

• Accessibility Updates: Enhanced Structural Clarity- All Users
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Error Feedback- All Users

Once again asking for additional information about these updates. They have been on the release notes for several weeks and still remain frustratingly vague. It is unclear if any changes related to these items are actually included in this release or not. Useful information would include:

• What HTML elements are changing?
• What changes to the hierarchy of HTML elements are part of this change?
• What parts of the Canvas UI are affected by this change?

Any customizations to the Canvas themes will rely on specifics of the HTML structure, so knowing what is changing will allow us to proactively handle those changes. Please make this a priority in the release notes.

[HeatherAhern]

Hi @theJBRU ,
Apologies for the delay, it took some time but we were able to get a blog update from product teams to explain more details around the accessibility updates. Please see Advancing Accessibility in Canvas: On the Path to Full WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance for more information. I hope this is helpul.

[dbrace]

Hi @HeatherAhern,

Thank you for this comment and the post that you referred to.

Just out of curiousity, would you be willing to describe the process that Instructure uses for deciding if a blog post should be with a specific platform (in this case, the Canvas LMS Blog at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-LMS-Blog/bg-p/canvas_lms_blog) or a general location (such as the Instructure Product Blog at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/The-Product-Blog/bg-p/tldr)?

I am asking because some areas are monitored more often (yes, I know that areas can be subscribed to and that leads to a balance of information/notification overload).

-Doug

[theJBRU]

That post is a start @HeatherAhern. It is still describing the changes in frustratingly broad and vague terms. It mentions that elements that perform "page actions" will be <button> elements, for example, but provides no information about what a page action is. That seems to be an internal engineering term because from my perspective as a front-end developer, any action a user takes on a page could be considered a page action. A more useful set of information would be something like "elements with class 'foo' in the UI are currently <a> elements. They will now be <button> elements."

[chriscas]

I agree with this.  The blog post did provide some additional detail, but not quite to the level we'd really want.  In addition to what @theJBRU mentioned about being more specific about elements, it would also be good to know which areas of Canvas have been changed with each deploy.  I'm guessing it's not just a global "we changed everything from a to b" but a slower process where perhaps the assignments page is done first, then modules, then the dashboard, etc...  I know documenting things like that isn't really fun for anyone, but as end users, we really do appreciate the details.

-Chris

[dbrace]

Agreed as well.  This is (subjectively speaking) "better" than nothing but there have been a lot of minor changes to the user inteface/experience that have happened related to this type of wording.

I reported one of them (the borders around some areas of a user account's details not displaying correctly) to Canvas Support (on 2025-04-10) when I initially observed it I was initially told (not with this exact wording) that everything was fine and as expected.  I strugged it off and then reported it again a month or so later (2025-05-14) and they said (something to the effect of) "that is not right".

A few weeks later it was fixed (2025-06-05).

What it mostly comes down to is, we do not know what UI differences are intended or not and whether or not to report it to colleagues/peers/Support for investigation.

If it is intended, it is documented and then does not need to be reported.

If it is not intended, it is not documented and does need to be reported.

If things are documented (yes, it can initially be time consuming) it will (1) save time later on and (2) provide more transpancy.

-Doug

[HeatherAhern]

Thank you @theJBRU @dbrace @chriscas for detailed feedback, I have passed along your comments to the product team for review.

[dbrace]

@HeatherAhern, are the subtle UI changes (currently available in beta) to course "Settings" and creating a new discussion (but not a new assignment) documented anywhere? Do they fall under the general classification of being an accessibility update?

 

[HeatherAhern]

Hi @dbrace I have passed along your question to the appropriate product team and hope to get an answer for you soon!

[dbrace]

Hi @HeatherAhern,

Were you able to get an answer for me?

-Doug

[HeatherAhern]

Hi @dbrace

I’m sorry I don’t have an update yet. I’ve reached out to them again and truly appreciate your patience as we wait for a response.

[PeterBudavari]

Hi @dbrace ,
Yes, those changes are part of our ongoing accessibility work. We have put together a detailed list on the Accessibility Blog
Let me know if you have any questions or need further details.

[dbrace]

Thank you for this @PeterBudavari.

I would like to make three requests:

1. encourage release/deploy note authors to link to this (or anything similar) in each set of notes that are published when this is an applicable change
2. would it be possible to edit that Accessibility blog post to include an approximate date that each change was made (Instructure/you should have that information in your change management system)
3. in the future, instead of referring to a blog post in another location (whether the location is obscure or not), include the details in the specific release/deploy notes because that is an area that most users/admins will be looking at

I have said this in several locations/venues, the Instructure/Canvas Community has too many different areas for users (and this includes Champions like myself) to monitor and this situation is an example of that. One member of the Community ( @theJBRU ) as commented several times in the FAQ area of deploy/releases requesting more specifics and having this list would have been very helpful while these updates were released.

-Doug

[HeatherAhern]

Hi @dbrace 

Thanks so much for catching this—we really appreciate your attention to detail! You're right to point out the placement. This blog should have been published in the Product Blog, as it covers ongoing product development and accessibility enhancements in Canvas. It was posted outside of our usual process, and we’ll work to correct that.

For context, here's how we generally determine blog placement in the Community:

• If a blog focuses on changes or developments in a product or process, it belongs in the Product Blog.

• If it provides workarounds, enablement tips, solutions, thought leadership, or best practices related to a specific product, it’s published in that product’s dedicated blog space within the Community.

Thanks again for surfacing this!

[dbrace]

Thank you @HeatherAhern.

-Doug