Accessibility & Inclusive Design
Find and remove barriers in one real course item — while keeping the actual learning challenge intact. This isn't a compliance checklist race.
Understand it
Accessible design reduces barriers between students and the learning they're expected to do. Some barriers are technical — missing captions, weak contrast, an inaccessible file, poor heading structure. Others are instructional — unclear directions, hidden expectations, a rigid response method that isn't actually part of the learning goal.
Inclusive design asks a related question: can more students participate meaningfully without changing the intended learning goal? Automated checkers are useful but incomplete — they can't judge whether alt text communicates the right meaning, or whether an interaction method is pedagogically necessary.
Live learning experience
Complete a short task containing realistic barriers (vague link text, an unlabeled table, color-only directions) — not a disability simulation. Notice what the design made harder than the learning itself required.
Four questions: can students perceive it, operate/navigate it, understand it, and participate/respond without an unnecessary barrier? These are ordinary design questions, not a new framework.
Some fixes are fast (real heading styles, better alt text, contrast). Others are design decisions (an accessible way to participate when a specific interaction method isn't the actual learning goal).
Work through the Accessibility Checkup on one real item: identify the learning purpose, find real barriers, make at least one improvement, run the relevant checker, and manually verify what it can't judge.
Verify the student path: can I find it, perceive it, understand it, operate it, and participate without an unrelated barrier? Record what changed and the next highest-impact item.
Flexible pathway
Identify barriers, improve one real item, implement the change, and keep going — accessibility isn't a one-time event.
A Canvas page, a document, a video, a lab or clinical activity, a third-party tool. Start with the learning purpose, not a compliance score.
Use the Checkup to find real barriers, then make at least one high-impact improvement — repaired headings, verified captions, an accessible participation option.
Test with Student View, keyboard navigation, or a built-in checker — don't rely on one automated score. Use the revised item with students.
Did the revision remove the barrier without lowering the challenge? A concrete before/after is worth sharing through Faculty Exchange, Demo Day, or a department session.
Toolbox
Five practical checks, worth about ten minutes.
Can students perceive it?
Real headings, meaningful alt text, captions/transcripts, readable contrast, no color-only meaning, essential info not trapped only in an image.
Can students operate & navigate it?
Descriptive links, logical order, usable keyboard interaction, simple properly-structured tables, accessible required tools.
Can students understand & respond?
Clear directions, visible steps, consistent expectations. Ask whether a specific response method is really part of the learning goal — if not, an accessible alternative may work.
Fixing the source is usually more sustainable than repeatedly repairing an exported file. And a high accessibility-checker score doesn't prove the learning experience is fully accessible — use the checker as a starting point, not a certificate.
Canvas: use the Rich Content Editor's semantic tools and the Canvas Accessibility Checker — see Canvas Launchpad for the how-to.
Accessibility Checkup
Use this on one real item. The goal isn't to complete every box — it's to find and remove the highest-impact barriers. Nothing here is saved or submitted — work through it, then print or screenshot when you're done.
Across disciplines
The pattern: distinguish the intended challenge from a design barrier that makes access harder without advancing that learning. Remove the second without weakening the first.
| Area | Barrier → improvement |
|---|---|
| Mathematics | Formulas trapped in screenshots → accessible equation/text structures, with the meaningful sequence explained. |
| Natural Science / Lab | Safety cues rely on color alone → text labels for safety meaning plus an accessible source document. |
| Health / Clinical | A required instant spoken response that isn't the actual competency → an appropriate alternative route, unless rapid verbal response is itself the professional standard. |
| Skilled Trades / Shop | Critical steps on a poster across the room → a readable, accessible checklist students can actually reference. |
| Computer Science / IT | Mouse-only interaction for a debugging task → verified keyboard accessibility that still requires the same diagnostic work. |
| Asynchronous Online | Unlabeled images, "click here" links, uncorrected captions → repaired structure, real alt text, corrected captions, checker + manual review. |