Releases Q&A: 2022-04-16 Rich Content Editor Icon Maker

[HeatherAhern]

Looking to discuss this feature from the 2022-04-16 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

POSTING GUIDELINES

• This topic is for feature discussion only—please share use cases, best practices, etc. regarding this feature
• Please thread replies as much as possible to keep posts organized

WHERE SHOULD I POST...?

• Idea enhancement feedback to product managers should be submitted in ideas.canvaslms.com (though linking to the idea here so others can find it is welcome)
• Bug reports should be submitted to Canvas Support—bugs will not be triaged in this thread

[james_whalley]

I love the idea of the Icon Maker. Upon testing though, I found that it is easy to make an icon that lacks the color contrast necessary to make it accessible. Although the accessibility checker will note if alt text is missing, it does not indicate contrast issues. As my colleague Julie Rummings says, "Alt text is primarily for those who use screen readers, but proper color contrast is important for those with low vision/color blindness." As such, I will be recommending to my team that we do not enable this feature until accessibility is improved.

[mwolfenstein]

This is sadly not the first time a feature has been released either as a feature option or into production without ensuring accessibility.

[degensp28]

Because of the ease with which an icon can be created that has unreadable text/images, we are recommending the tool not be turned on until the icon maker is capable of mitigating this risk during the creation process.

As an example of other similar checkers: https://www.npmjs.com/package/color-contrast-checker

A potentially simpler option would be to restrict future color picks based on the initial color picked for the background shape.

While we are on the subject of potential accessibility improvements, the tool could have the Alt Text automatically fill in with the icon’s “Text” should the former be left blank.

[fagers]

Yes please!

[KristinL]

📌  The Instructional Design Team created a blog that takes a closer look at this new tool:   The Dos and Don’ts of Icon Maker

[james_whalley]

Thank you for this resource @KristinL . I just hope this doesn't mean that the development team won't try to improve the tool and make some of the "don't"s not possible. It'll be hard to get faculty to go through such an extensive resource just to make an icon or two. 😞

[MERLAPELLANO-MA]

I like the idea of the Icon Maker.

[rgarcelo]

I've looking for the Icon Editor in the RCE since it's listed 4-16-2022 release but still do NOT see it as of now (4-22-2022 at 10:00 am PDT.  I've been checking for it in three different institutional instances, in beta as well.  Is it known when it will appear in live or beta instances?  Is there an Instructure Community page to find such information?

- Ray Garcelon

[chriscas]

Hi @rgarcelo,

One of each institution's Canvas administrators will need to enable the Icon Maker feature at the account level, and then it should appear in those institutions Canvas courses.

-Chris

[rgarcelo]

Thank you, Chris, for your quick reply to the new feature deployment procedure.

[MERLAPELLANO-MA]

Thank you,

[MERLAPELLANO-MA]

Thank you,