Accessibility has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. Accessibility does not refer only to people who have self-identified with some permanent impairment. Temporary and situational accessibility issues are not uncommon, either. And there are different types of accessibility issues such as visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive, as illustrated in the graphic below:

There are different types of accessibility issues which may be permanent, temporary, or situational

That graphic is missing cognitive disabilities and temporary or situational cognitive impairments. What might be examples of those?

You can learn more generally about accessibility & universal design at the WebAIM & CAST websites.

Canvas Accessibility Checker

Canvas has a tool available in rich content editor that will check your content for any accessibility issues such as images without alternative text, insufficient color contrast, tables without captions, and so on.

To check your content for accessibility issues, click on the Accessibility Checker icon on the bottom right of the rich content editor toolbar:

accessibility checker icon

This will pop up a panel in which you can view and fix any accessibility issues:

accessibility checker panel

The accessibility checker verifies the following accessibility rules:

Table captions: Tables should include a caption describing the contents of the table.
Table header scope: Tables headers should specify scope and the appropriate structure.
Table header: Tables should include at least one header.
Sequential headings: Heading levels should not be skipped (e.g. H2 to H4). However, the tool does not check if the first header starts with H2 or whether the headings are sequential with the rest of the content in the page. Tables do not begin with H1, which is designated for the page title.
Heading paragraphs: Headings should not contain more than 120 characters.
Image alt text: Images should include an alt attribute describing the image content.
Image alt filename: Image filenames should not be used as the alt attribute describing the image content. Currently, files uploaded directly to Canvas create a redirect that does not properly verify image filenames.
Image alt length: Alt attribute text should not contain more than 120 characters.
Adjacent links: Adjacent links with the same URL should be a single link. This rule verifies link errors where the link text may include spaces and break the link into multiple links.
Large text contrast: Text larger than 18pt (or bold 14pt) should display a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1.
Small text contrast: Text smaller than 18pt (or bold 14pt) should display a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1.

See How do I use the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor? for more information.

Accessibility Checklist

We recently created a handout on How to Fix and Prevent Accessibility Issues in Canvas which goes beyond just using the built-in accessibility checker, and has links on how to caption videos and check the accessibility of your files, too. It also has recommendations for how to prevent accessibility issues from arising in the first place.