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Canvas Accessibility
Resources

Why Canvas Accessibility Matters

Canvas is where your students spend much of their academic lives — reading course materials, completing assignments, and engaging with content. When your course is built accessibly, every student can participate fully, regardless of ability. The good news: Canvas includes powerful built-in tools to help you get there. This guide walks you through each one, step by step.

These instructions were adapted from the FSU Office of Digital Learning. For additional Canvas support and resources, visit the FSU Office of Digital Learning.

Ally

Ally is a tool built into Canvas that helps ensure your course content is accessible to all students. It scans pages, documents, images, and more — assigning each an accessibility score. While Ally is enabled in all Canvas courses, instructors won't see their Ally scores or flagged issues until the Ally Course Report is enabled.

Important: Ally is not a catch-all. A 100% Ally score is not a substitute for understanding and applying the WCAG 2.1 AA technical standard, and does not guarantee a fully accessible course. Use it as a helpful guide, not a final verdict.

Enabling Ally Course Report

  1. Step 1. On the Course Navigation menu, select Settings. Canvas Settings button
  2. Step 2. Select the Navigation tab. Canvas course settings tab bar showing Course Details, Sections, Navigation, Apps, Feature Options, and Integrations — with Navigation selected and underlined
  3. Step 3. Find Ally Course Report in the disabled items list, click its three-dot menu, and select Enable. Canvas Navigation settings list showing Ally Course Report in the disabled section. A three-dot context menu is open showing Enable and Move options, with a dark red Enable button visible.
  4. Step 4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save.

Reviewing Ally Course Report

a) The Course Report Overview gives you a quick rundown of your overall accessibility score.

Ally Course Report dashboard showing 64% overall score for Accessibility Training Sandbox. A donut chart breaks down 71 content items by type: 18 images, 17 PDFs, 17 pages, 9 presentations, 6 Word docs, 2 assignments, 1 discussion, 1 quiz. Two action panels show 27 easiest items to fix and 28 low-scoring items, each with a Start button.

b) Remaining Issues shows a breakdown of affected content sorted by severity — most to least severe.

Ally remaining issues table with three rows. A red critical icon marks 5 documents not OCR'd. Two yellow warning icons mark 15 images without descriptions and 9 documents with contrast issues.

c) Selecting an issue shows which files or Canvas pages are affected.

Ally issue detail listing three affected files — two PowerPoint presentations and one Word document — each with 4 issues and accessibility scores of 26–28%. A sidebar tooltip reads: The document has contrast issues — 9 out of 71.

d) The gauge icons indicate severity level. Each color corresponds to a score range:

Low (0–33%) Needs Help — there are severe accessibility issues that require attention.
Medium (34–66%) A little better — the file is somewhat accessible but needs improvement.
High (67–99%) Almost there — the file is largely accessible, but further improvements are possible.
Perfect (100%) No issues detected — though manual review is still recommended.

e) Clicking a gauge icon loads the document and shows its specific accessibility issues.

Ally document viewer showing a Word document preview on the left. On the right, an accessibility score panel shows 38% and highlights the top issue: This document does not have headings. Buttons offer What this means and How to add headings, plus an upload area for a corrected version.

f) Select All Issues to see the full list of accessibility issues for a file.

Ally All Issues panel for Word Practice.docx showing 38% score. Three issues are listed with potential score improvements: missing headings (up to 58%), images without descriptions (up to 48%), and tables missing headers (up to 42%).

TidyUP

Before working on accessibility fixes, run TidyUP first. Removing unused or duplicate files gives you a more accurate Ally score and reduces the amount of content you need to remediate. If there are files you want to keep but don't use in the course, store them on your local drive, OneDrive, or a separate development site.

Enabling TidyUP

  1. Step 1. On the Course Navigation menu, select Settings. Canvas Settings button
  2. Step 2. Select the Navigation tab. Canvas course settings tab bar with Course Details, Sections, Navigation, Apps, Feature Options, and Integrations — Navigation tab selected
  3. Step 3. Find TidyUP in the disabled items list, click its three-dot menu, and select Enable. Canvas Navigation settings showing TidyUP in the disabled items list. A three-dot context menu is open with Enable and Move options, and a dark red Enable button visible.
  4. Step 4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save.

Utilizing TidyUP

  1. Step 1. Select Scan Course (recommended to scan All). This may take a few minutes depending on how many files are in your course. TidyUP welcome screen with a large green Scan Course button, a File Types to Include option set to All, and a brief description of TidyUP's purpose.
  2. Step 2. Once the scan completes, the dashboard shows a breakdown by File Name, Used In, and Actions. TidyUP results dashboard with columns for File Name, Used In, Last Updated, Size, and Actions. Files with a Used In location show only an edit icon; files not in use show both an edit icon and a red trash can.
  3. Step 3. If the Used In column is blank and a red trash can appears under Actions, the file is not currently being used. Add it to the course if needed — otherwise, delete it. Files actively in use cannot be deleted. TidyUP table row for aba_dutytodefend.pdf with a blank Used In column, dated 5/15/2025, 370KB, with both an edit icon and red trash can in Actions — indicating the file is unused.
  4. Step 4. To delete in bulk, use the Show: Unused Files filter. TidyUP Show dropdown with three options: All, Unused Files (highlighted), and Files In Use.
  5. Step 5. With Unused Files filtered, select All, then click Delete Selected. If there are multiple pages of files, repeat this for each page. TidyUP dashboard filtered to Unused Files with all files selected via checkboxes. The Delete Selected button is highlighted in red at the top right.

DesignPLUS Templates

We encourage content creators to use DesignPLUS templates when building course pages, assignments, discussion boards, and quizzes. These templates support proper headings, lists, and color contrast — making courses easier to navigate for all students. To learn more, join our "An Introduction to DesignPLUS" webinar.

Using the QuickStart Wizard

  1. Step 1. Create a new Page from either the Pages tab or from within a Module. Canvas module toolbar showing a dark red plus Page button
  2. Step 2. From the Modules tab, select Create Page, give it a Page Name, then click Add Item. Canvas Add Item to Module dialog. The Page type is selected, Create Page is highlighted at the top of the list, a Page Name field reads Example Page, and the Add Item button is visible.
  3. Step 3. Select Edit to open the page editor.
  4. Step 4. The DesignPLUS QuickStart Wizard button will appear at the top of the editor. Canvas Rich Content Editor showing a page titled Edit Sample. A dark red DesignPLUS QuickStart Wizard button is prominently displayed at the top.
  5. Step 5. Select the page type you want to use. Module Overview is shown as an example. DesignPLUS QuickStart Wizard showing a live Module Overview template preview with a dark banner, module overview section, and learning objectives section. A template browser on the right shows Home Pages and Module Pages categories.
  6. Step 6. Move, remove, or add content blocks as needed.
  7. Step 7. Click Add to Editor to insert the template.
  8. Step 8. Edit the content in the editor, then select Save or Save and Publish. Canvas page editor footer showing Cancel, Save and Publish, and a dark red Save button

Canvas RCE Accessibility Checker

Canvas accessibility checkers are built into pages, assignments, discussion boards, and quizzes. The Rich Content Editor (RCE) Checker reviews: color contrast, list formatting, table headers, table captions, page headings, split links, alt text, and more.

  1. Step 1. Open the page or item and select Edit.
  2. Step 2. Select the Accessibility Checker icon at the bottom of the editor toolbar. Canvas Rich Content Editor showing a formatted course page with module materials. The Accessibility Checker icon — a person symbol — is circled at the bottom right of the toolbar status bar. A red badge showing 2 issues is visible nearby.
  3. Step 3. Make the suggested change and select Apply. You must apply before clicking Next. Canvas Accessibility Checker panel showing Issue 1 of 9: Lists should be formatted as lists. A Format as a list checkbox is checked and the Apply button is highlighted in dark red.
  4. Step 4. Select Next and work through each remaining issue. The Apply button stays grayed out until the problem is resolved. In the example below, the contrast issue required selecting a darker color before Apply became available. Canvas Accessibility Checker showing Issue 4 of 9: text smaller than 18pt requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1. A color picker is displayed with a red gradient. The Apply button is grayed out until a compliant color is chosen.
  5. Step 5. Once all issues are resolved, the checker will confirm: "No accessibility issues were detected." Canvas Accessibility Checker showing the completed state: No accessibility issues were detected, illustrated with a colorful balloon graphic.
  6. Step 6. Save the page. Changes will be lost if you navigate away without saving.

DesignPLUS Accessibility Checker

Best used alongside DesignPLUS templates, but works on any Canvas page. Checks for: color contrast, heading structure, image alt text, descriptive link text, math accessibility, and table formatting.

  1. Step 1. Open the page and select Edit.
  2. Step 2. Open the DesignPLUS Sidebar by clicking the rocket ship icon in the upper right-hand corner of the editor. DesignPLUS sidebar toggle — a dark red button with a rocket ship icon and the label Open DesignPLUS Sidebar (Alt/Option+Shift+D)
  3. Step 3. Select the Accessibility / Usability Checker icon (the person with a circle). DesignPLUS Accessibility and Usability panel showing six checker tools: Contrast Checker, Heading Checker, Image Alt Checker (with a badge showing 3 issues), Link Checker, Math Checker, and Table Checker. A Usability section below shows External Assets, Preview Content, Style iframes, and Upgrade.
  4. Step 4. Select the issue type and fix it directly in the checker. In the example below, the Image Alt Checker flags images missing descriptive alt text. DesignPLUS Image Alt Checker showing three images. The first two have empty alt text fields. The third has the file name Sagitarius Constellation.jpg entered as alt text with a red warning: Do not use the file name for alt text.
  5. Step 5. Save the page when all issues are resolved.

General Tips

Use of Color

  • Color should be an extra layer of emphasis — not the only way information is conveyed.
    • Incorrect: Relying on color alone to show assignment status.
      • Overdue assignments appear in red
      • On-time assignments appear in green

      If a student is color-blind or using a screen reader, the meaning is completely lost.
    • Correct: Use color plus a text label.
      • Overdue – Assignment 3 (red text + the word "Overdue")
      • On-time – Assignment 4 (green text + the phrase "On-time")

Underlining

  • Avoid using underlining as emphasis in digital formats. In web content, underlines signal hyperlinks — using them for decorative emphasis creates confusion for screen reader users and anyone scanning the page.
    • Use bold, italics, or surrounding words to add emphasis instead.
    • Reserve underlines exclusively for hyperlinks.

Hyperlinks

  • Link text should tell the reader where the link goes — before they click it.
    • Poor link text: "Link", "Click Here", "Here" — these provide no context for screen reader users who navigate by links.
    • Good link text: Use the article title, page name, or resource description (e.g., WCAG Text Alternatives guidance).
    • If multiple formats are available (PDF, Word, HTML), labeling each by format is acceptable and helpful.

Canvas Accessibility Quick Checklist

  • Enable and review the Ally Course Report in each course
  • Run TidyUP to remove unused files before starting remediation
  • Use DesignPLUS templates for new pages, assignments, and discussions
  • Run the RCE Accessibility Checker on every page before publishing
  • Use the DesignPLUS Accessibility Checker for a deeper review
  • Add descriptive alt text to all images — never use the file name
  • Use color plus text labels — never color alone to convey meaning
  • Reserve underlines for hyperlinks only
  • Write descriptive link text — avoid "click here," "link," or "here"
  • Always Save after applying accessibility fixes