Have you noticed a colored dial appearing next to your course materials? That's Ally, a tool created by Blackboard that can help improve your course's accessibility by notifying you when materials are inaccessible and allowing students to download materials in different formats.
This box contains some basic information about Ally. The rest of this page provides guidance on how to fix some of the most common issues flagged by the accessibility checker.
Tip: One of the most common reasons a Word document will be flagged is missing headings. Check the headings box to learn how to satisfy this requirement from the start.
Is your document missing headings? Headings should be used to indicate a document's hierarchical structure with sections and subsections. If your document has no hierarchical structure, making your title a level one heading should satisfy the checker.
For details on why to use headings, read the WebAIM article. Links below will show you how to create headings in Microsoft Word and Google docs.
Hate how Word's default headings look? Watch the video or read its accompanying article to learn how to reformat default heading styles.
Are your links not descriptive? Screen reader users can navigate directly to links, which means they may hear the text of the link without any additional context. Because of this, link text should:
For more detail, read the article below.
If your table is missing a header, that means you haven't properly formatted the top row to clarify its organizational role. Watch the video below to learn this easy fix.
Is an image in your document missing alternative text? Read the Alternative Text Guide to learn how to write good alt text, and read Adding Alt Text in Office to learn how to fix this problem in Office documents. If you need to add alt text to an image embedded in Canvas' text editor, see the last link.
Is your PDF untagged? Watch the video or read the article on adding structural tags to your PDFs. This will make the document's structure more comprehensible for screen readers.
Images or documents may be flagged for insufficient contrast if text does not stand out enough against the background. You can use the tool below to check to make sure you have enough contrast in your text and images.
Running your documents through an accessibility checker before uploading them to Canvas can save you some time. Below, learn how to use the Office accessibility checkers and watch a demo of one in action.