Course Content

• Instructors
• Instructional Designers
• Those responsible for standardized department course content (e.g., content for large courses)
• Anyone building, reviewing, or maintaining/updating content in Canvas for distribution

In addition to foundational digital accessibility concepts, those responsible for course accessibility should learn to use Panorama. Panorama is an accessibility scanning and remediation tool accessed in the Canvas interface.

For individuals seeking a quick introduction to concepts and tools with support:

• 3-Week Course Accessibility Challenge (U-M Training | Estimated time to complete: 1–2 hours over 3 weeks)
• Canvas Accessibility with Panorama (Synchronous, Virtual) (U-M Training | Time to complete: 1 hour)

For individuals ready for detailed guidance to implement independently:

• Canvas Accessibility with Panorama (Asynchronous) (U-M Canvas Course | Estimated time to complete: 1–3 hours, includes time to read linked guidance articles)
• Panorama for Instructors (U-M Resource | Estimated time to complete: 30 minutes + added time for viewing short videos)

• Individuals leading digital accessibility efforts for units or teams
• Instructors and instructional designers
• Those responsible for standardized department course content (e.g., content for large courses)
• Anyone building, reviewing, or maintaining/updating course content in Canvas

For information about student-generated content in Canvas, please refer to the Course Accessibility Expectations Guidance.

Step 1: Prioritize your courses

If you are responsible for multiple courses, you will need to determine the order in which to review your courses. 

Courses with the following characteristics should be your highest priority:

• Offered in the current or upcoming term
• High enrollment
• One or more enrolled students have known digital accessibility needs
• Complaints have previously been made regarding the accessibility of course content

If hosting courses on websites other than Canvas: Follow the guidance in the Websites pathway. The guidance below is focused on Canvas courses.

Step 2: Inventory your course materials

For each course, inventory the Canvas pages as well as uploaded, embedded, and linked content. Use the Course Content Tracker Template (or create your own system) along with Panorama to produce your inventory.

Content types:

• Uploaded Content: Files or documents (like PDFs, Word docs, images, and videos) that are stored directly within Canvas in the “Files” or "Media Gallery" areas and are backed up with the course itself. This includes both unlisted content that has not been published for student view and content students can view or download.
• Embedded Content: Content (such as videos, forms, or external tools) that is displayed directly in a Canvas page using embed codes (often HTML), but the actual file is hosted elsewhere (like YouTube or Google Docs). Students view the content within Canvas without leaving the course page.
• Linked Content: Links that point to resources outside the course (such as websites, Google Drive files, or library resources). Clicking a link takes students away from Canvas to view the content.

Populate inventory with content scanned by Panorama

1. In the Panorama section for your Canvas course, visit the "Course Report" tab.
2. Use the "Reprocess course" button to run an up-to-date accessibility scan. Note: a scan may take a few hours depending on the volume of the course material.
3. Scroll down to the "Files and Issues" section for a list of pages and files associated with the course. Use this list as a starting point for populating your inventory items. Note the accessibility score for each item in your inventory. 

Be aware of the following limitations with Panorama Course Reports:

• Exported Panorama reports do not provide a list of pages and files. A list of your Canvas course pages and files is currently only available through Panorama’s Course Report tab inside Canvas.
• Panorama will include all pages and all supported content types in the Course Report, including those not published or not linked to on a course page. Content which you do not intend to publish or link to does not need to be included in your inventory and should be considered for removal from your Canvas files.
• Panorama will scan content added via the rich text editor in the Announcements and Assessments sections of Canvas, but the results will not appear in the Course Report. Navigate to the Announcements and Assessments sections to review scores and issues for these content types.
• Panorama is only able to scan some embedded content and can not scan linked content. The Panorama Supported and Unsupported Content Types KBA outlines which items are included in Course Reports.
• Panorama may produce some false positives (indicating there is an accessibility error when there is not in fact an accessibility error). Please reach out to the contacts in the “Get Help” section at the bottom of this page to report any false positives you encounter. ITS is reporting issues to Panorama and improvements are rolled out on an ongoing basis.

Populate inventory with content not scanned by Panorama:

1. Navigate to the Pages section of your Canvas course. Review each page and add any embedded content and linked content not detected by the scan to your inventory.
2. Navigate to the Quizzes section of your Canvas course and document each quiz in your inventory.
3. Navigate to learning tool integration sections (i.e. Perusall or Gradescope). Document any learning materials, assignments or assessments housed within these integrations, as these should also be assessed for accessibility. Keep in mind that learning tool integrations may also have accessibility issues (refer to guidance in the Get Help section if you have questions about the accessibility of a tool you use in your course). 

Step 3: Assess use

First, review each item in your inventory and determine which content is still active course content. Pages or content from past iterations of a course that are no longer needed should be removed from current courses or replaced with up-to-date versions. 

Second, reconsider whether supplemental materials—such as articles that allow students to go deeper into a topic, but are not used directly in the course—need to be included in your course content. Supplemental materials are content that is not assigned and will not impact a student’s ability to master curricular learning objectives. If these materials are included in course content, they must be accessible. An alternative approach is to provide an accessible document that contains a list of resources for further exploration on the course topic and noting where students can access these (e.g., U-M Library database, government database, streaming service). 

You should not remove content that is still relevant to student learning and their ability to meet curriculum requirements. In the Course Content Tracker, document which content is out of date by selecting the “Remove/Replace” option under the Status dropdown.

For all remaining pages and content, determine which items should be designated as “high priority”. High priority items include:

• Core course documents and pages (e.g., syllabus, key dates/deadlines)
• Assessments (e.g., tests, quizzes, assignment sheets, grading rubrics)
• Graded assignments (including weekly modules)
• Required reading, viewing, or listening content

Document the appropriate priority level for each item in your inventory.

Step 4: Prioritize for remediation

Start with high priority items. You will likely have several high priority items requiring remediation. To make the process more manageable, select a prioritization approach that aligns with your course context and goals. 

Recommendation: Use the Panorama To Do List feature to track which files, pages, and assignments you need to remediate. The list can be sorted by format type, accessibility score, or last date updated.

Please note: If you are working with copyrighted materials, review U-M Course Expectations Guidance (refer to content in the “Fix” section) to determine whether and to what extent you can directly remediate the material. Additional recommendations for acquiring accessible versions of copyrighted material are available in this Accessible Course Readings KBA.

Step 5: Replace PDFs where possible

PDFs are typically difficult and time consuming to remediate. Where possible, you should consider replacing PDFs with a source file (e.g., a Microsoft Word or Google Docs file) or alternative format (such as HTML or EPUB) rather than attempting to remediate them. These file formats tend to be more accessible by default and easier to remediate.

Review the PDF Decision Tree and Accessible Course Readings KBA for guidance on when to replace PDFs, the benefits of alternative formats, and where to look for and how to produce alternative formats.

• Course owners/administrators (“Teacher” role in Canvas), including those responsible for standardized content in large courses with multiple sections
• Content creators (“Designer” role in Canvas)
• Delegated remediators, which may include other employees (such as instructional designers or trained student employees) or qualified external suppliers

Digital course content is required to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA as recommended by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). These guidelines are referenced in U-M's Electronic and Information Technology SPG as well as the ADA Title II federal regulations.

You are not expected to become a WCAG expert, but it will be necessary to familiarize yourself with core digital accessibility concepts and utilize the assistive tools made available at U-M to scan and remediate your course content. Use the resources linked within this pathway to set yourself up for success. You can also reference other digital asset pathways to learn more about how WCAG criteria apply to specific formats.

In terms of course accessibility scores from Panorama, it is expected that you are:

1. Working to make progress toward a high accessibility score for individual materials and the overall course (indicated by the green hexagon “Proceed” icon). Instructors are not required to achieve 100% in the Panorama tool.
2. Seeking assistance if you encounter issues or barriers to making course content accessible, including potential errors within the Panorama tool (refer to the Get Help section at the bottom of this page).

Please note: Panorama was determined to be the most suitable tool to assist with remediation at U-M, but that does not mean the tool is perfect. As an automated tool, it cannot catch or fix every potential access issue, and so a score of 100% may not always be possible. User feedback is provided to Panorama on a regular basis, resulting in ongoing improvements.

In the Review stage, you (or the course instructor) should have determined how to prioritize course content for remediation. If the remediation work is a shared effort, ensure individuals have been clearly assigned to each item.

The workflow will vary depending on the content format.

• Canvas Pages: Work through the Panorama accessibility report for each page, using the “Fix Issue” feature to correct accessibility barriers.
• Canvas Quizzes: Follow the best practices outlined in this Canvas Quizzes Accessibility KBA.
• Documents & Emails: Follow the remediation workflow guidance in the Documents & Emails Roadmap Pathway.
• Videos & Audio Files: Follow the remediation workflow guidance in the Video & Audio Roadmap Pathway.
• Images: Follow the remediation workflow guidance in the Images & Complex Visuals Roadmap Pathway, which points to resources for writing effective alt text for different types of images and managing alt text descriptions for image banks that are utilized repeatedly.
• Referenced Websites: If you own or manage the website, follow the remediation workflow guidance in the Websites & Web Applications Roadmap Pathway. If you don’t own or manage the website, use a free accessibility scanning tool like WAVE from WebAIM to assess referenced webpages. If the scan reports a lot of errors and alerts, consider seeking an alternative reference or preparing a version of the content in an accessible, alternative format.

U-M provides a variety of tools to assist with accessibility scanning and remediation.

• Canvas Pages & Content Scanned by Panorama: Use the “Fix Issue” feature available in Panorama accessibility reports to correct accessibility barriers.
• Google Suite: Grackle is available to remediate Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets.
• Microsoft Office Suite: Use the Microsoft Accessibility Checker in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and OneNote.
• Video & Audio Files: Review Media Player Accessibility Features for information on media players commonly used at U-M.
• Images: Wolverine Describer can assist with generating alt text for images, but the output should always be reviewed to ensure it is accurate and context appropriate.
• Course Websites: Course websites you host outside of Canvas can use the U-M Accessibility Scanning Service.
• Referenced Websites: Websites you don’t manage that are referenced within the course can be scanned using WAVE from WebAIM.

Tools not supported by U-M should be avoided where possible. These tools may not be secure enough to safely handle sensitive data and may not deliver accurate results.

The amount of time to remediate course materials will vary widely depending on the format, length, and complexity. From a limited set of course remediation pilots across U-M STEM, Humanities, and Social Science courses, time to remediate a full course ranged from 25–100 hours.

It can be helpful to track how long it takes you to remediate each course (or each material within a course) to more accurately estimate how long it will take you to remediate similar courses (or materials). As you become more familiar with what is required for accessibility and how to apply fixes with available tools, you will become faster at remediation.

• Course owners
• Unit leadership, academic department chairs (who can remind course owners to review content prior to semester)

Prior to each semester in which a course will be delivered, schedule time to do the following:

1. Review existing content and remove or replace anything that is outdated or no longer needed.
2. Finalize any new content and assess each new item for accessibility. This is especially important for content that can’t be scanned by Panorama (refer to Panorama Supported and Unsupported Content Types KBA for details).
3. For new content with accessibility issues, either remediate it or identify an accessible alternative.
4. Run a new Panorama scan of the entire course. As the tool improves with time, additional accessibility issues may be detected in old content. Fix reported issues with an aim to improve your accessibility score or maintain a high accessibility score. The Use Panorama Course Reports to Track Accessibility KBA explains how to track course accessibility scores over time.

There are many ways to proactively integrate accessibility best practices into your course content workflows. Taking these steps will save you time and effort while reducing last minute scrambles to remediate items.

1. Use accessible templates. These may be made available by academic units, administrators for large courses, or you can make them yourself for common content types (such as syllabi, assignments, and worksheets). As an example, check out this example accessible U-M syllabus template. Some units will offer accessible Canvas blueprint courses.
2. Integrate accessibility features as you develop new content. Learning best practices and remediating different types of content will teach you what is required for accessibility. Instead of applying fixes on the backend, implement accessibility features as you go.
3. Consistently use U-M supported accessibility scanning and remediation tools. No matter how good you get at integrating accessibility features proactively, it’s always important to use tools to check for and correct any issues before publishing or distributing content.
4. Select accessible third party content. When selecting third party materials to include in your course (readings, videos, website links, etc.), account for accessibility. Where possible, choose accessible formats. If you need to include an inaccessible item, factor in the time necessary to request or prepare an accessible version. Refer to Accessible Course Readings KBA for additional guidance.
5. Select accessible learning tool integrations. If you plan to add a new learning tool to a course, connect with the resources in the “Get Help” section below or your unit’s IT and/or instructional designer teams to determine if the accessibility of the tool has ever been assessed. Remain open to exploring alternative tools that offer similar functionality with higher levels of accessibility.
6. Refresh your digital accessibility knowledge. Intermittent re-engagement with digital accessibility training will reinforce foundational concepts while also keeping you up to date on new digital accessibility tools and any adjustments to technical standards. Sign up for accessibility-focused newsletters to get periodic updates (Disability Equity Office Newsletter sign-up) and commit to attending at least one digital accessibility-focused training each year. You can view past Disability Equity Office trainings on YouTube.
7. Make students aware of Panorama tools. Students can use Panorama to convert materials into formats they prefer or that will be more accessible to them. Include information in your syllabus and course overview messaging about Panorama. Reference the Panorama for Students webpage which contains relevant information.