Tool to check Accessibility at the course level

(14)

I would like to have a Canvas tool to check Accessibility issues at the course level or selected parts of a course. I think this would make checking for Accessibility issues easier for content creators and result in increased compliance course-wide.

 

In the Canvas Beta Release Notes (2017-10-16), Canvas introduced the Rich Content Editor Accessibility Checker. The tool notifies the content creator of any Accessibility issues.  My feature idea is to expand on that and have a course-level Canvas tool where content creators can run an Accessibility checker for the entire course or selected parts of a course.

Example Menu Choices

For example, check Accessibility issues for the entire course, or select from the following: Syllabus, Pages, Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Announcements, or by module. The module check would check all items in the module such as pages and assignments.  Users would be able to select one or more of the items. For example, check all assignments and discussions, or check the syllabus and all pages, or just check everything in Module 5.

 

Report Example

The results of the check (Accessibility report) would display a list of pages or other items. Also listed would be the number of issues and a summary of the issues (or more details about each issue?). The user would then click on the page or item name and go to that item in edit mode, with the Accessibility Checker slider on the right, just like it does in the Accessibility Checker tool (currently in Beta), see Canvas Beta Release Notes (2017-10-16).

Your Feedback

I’d like to hear your feedback on my idea:

  • Would this feature idea help increase the Accessibility compliance of your courses? Would it make checking for Accessibility easier and faster?
  • What would you want included in the Accessibility report?
  • What parts of the course would you want to check or just everything at once?
  • Do you want to be able to fix the issues from the report page or is it better to click on a link in the report and go to the page and fix the issue using the Accessibility Checker slider (like it is now in Beta)?
  • What other features should this Accessibility tool checker at the course level have?
  • Would this suggested tool increase the Accessibility level of your Blueprint courses?

This was first discussed during the Beta Release Notes (2017-10-16) Collaborative Chat‌. This idea would increase Accessibility‌, and Accessibility within Canvas‌.

24 Comments
ericwerth
Community Explorer

Awesome.  Thanks again!

canvas-admins
Community Novice

It's wonderful that inclusive design is getting more and more traction, and while automated accessibility checkers are a great start, there are many aspects that require a human's judgement. An automated checker can see whether or not an image has alternative text, but it can't tell whether the text makes sense or not, or whether it is redundant. An automated checker can't tell whether all controls are available to someone who can't use a mouse. These are just two examples where a human is needed.

Sylvia_Ami
Community Contributor

You are so right canvas-admins‌.  Having a report that tells you what you what the human manually needs to check would be very helpful. But as you said, the humans also need to do their part to make sure the design and other items follow accessibility policies.

ProductPanda
Instructure
Instructure
Status changed to: Archived
Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.