Accessibility & Accommodations

Students may need to access course content in multiple ways, including through screen readers, closed captioning, sign-language interpretation, and other assistive technologies. Some students may also require extended due dates on assignments, extended time on exams, or other accommodations.

Course Design Recommendations

Accessible practices for teaching and course design will benefit all your learners, including those with disabilities.

Penn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, & Innovation (CETLI) advises organizing your Canvas site so students can easily navigate and find all the information they need to succeed in your course. The Universal Design for Learning Guidelines provides some basic principles you can use to create an accessible course for all learners.

You can also lessen the need for specific student accommodations by designing a flexible course with pathways for students to catch up if they fall behind.

Web accessibility recommendations

While Canvas is already designed with web accessibility in mind, we suggest keeping the web accessibility recommendations below in mind as well when creating your course.

Add short, descriptive alternative text to provide context for images or videos. Good alternative text explains why the content is there, what information it offers, and what purpose it fulfills; for example, “search” is the correct alt text for the search icon, not “magnifying glass.”
Use headers to organize page content into navigable sections. Changing the size or appearance of text is not a substitute for using a formatted header.
Create descriptive link text for URLs. The displayed text should indicate where the link leads. Avoid “click here” or simply pasting in the web address.
Design with high-contrast colors. Avoid using color alone to indicate an object on the page, such as “see the highlighted text.”
Text should be text, not an image. Do not use pictures or screenshots of text. These are inaccessible to screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Tables are for information. Use tables only when needed, and ensure that all parts of the table are adequately labeled. Know that screen readers will read table content left-to-right first, then top-to-bottom.
Caption all video content. Use Panopto’s automatic machine captioning if human captioning is unavailable.

Accessibility checkers

Canvas has a built-in accessibility checker, which will help ensure your new page is accessible as you work. The accessibility checker will identify any issues it finds on the page and explain how to fix them.

The accessibility checker can be found at the bottom right of the Rich Content Editor:

Your school may have access to additional tools. Please reach out to your LSP to learn what’s available.

Accommodations

The Weingarten Center provides services for students who self-identify with a disability in order to ensure access to all University programs, activities, and services. The process begins when a student requests an accommodation, provides documentation of their condition, and meets with a Disability Specialist. Students who receive accommodations work with the Disability Services staff to coordinate their academic accommodations as well as accessible housing, dining, communication, and technology.

As an instructor, you may receive an email from Disability Services requiring you to implement academic accommodations for a particular student. Common accommodations that instructors need to set up in Canvas include:

If a student discloses that they require academic accommodations in your course but you have not yet received a notification from Disability Services, please ask the student to contact Disability Services for assistance. The Weingarten Center also provides resources for instructors about supporting students with disabilities in your courses.

Additional Resources

Getting Help

Please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.