Canvas Courses Best Practices

Accessible Canvas courses enable all enrolled students to access course content and participate in assignments. Canvas courses can be made accessible by using best practices for accessible design and tools for flexible formats. 

• Learn more about Canvas Accessibility tools

Use Panorama to Improve Accessibility

Panorama is an accessibility tool in Canvas that allows you to check, improve, and create accessible content directly within Canvas.

• Find guidance on Panorama for Instructors
• Find guidance on Panorama for Students

Select Accessible Files

For course readings and other required materials, provide the most accessible original formats available. For example, link to an e-book chapter rather than downloading and attaching as PDF; link to an online resource rather than taking a screenshot. 

• Learn to provide access to Library materials in Canvas

For content you create, like Word Docs or slide decks, use best practices for document accessibility and provide original formats whenever possible.

• Learn about document accessibility for different file types
• Use Panorama tools to scan and improve accessibility or files

For content that already exists in PDF, use tools to check and improve accessibility as needed.

• Learn about PDF Accessibility in Panorama
• Learn to make existing PDFs accessible

Exams and Quizzes

Follow best practices for Canvas content when creating quizzes. Use Panorama to automatically find accessibility issues with content created in the rich text editor.

• More about Canvas Quizzes accessibility

Canvas Content

When creating Canvas pages and other content types, follow best practies.

Add Alt Text to Images

When you add images in the rich text editor in Canvas, add short, descriptive alt text that describes the image. This ensures that people who can’t see or access the original image understand its content. 

• Add alt text to images in Canvas
• Alt text best practices

You can also add alt-text to images in Canvas using Panorama.

Add Captions and Descriptions to Video Content

If you have video content in your course, provide captions and descriptions so that students who can’t hear, see, or process the original video can understand its content.

• Create Captions in MiVideo
• Order Audio Descriptions in MiVideo
• Learn more about Video & Audio Accessibility

Use Structure

For Canvas pages and course documents, use headings and lists to structure your content. This makes text more understandable by breaking up longer sections and making content easier to navigate. 

When adding headings in the Canvas Rich Content Editor, select the heading level from the heading drop-down menu. 

Use bulleted lists or numbered lists by selecting the list buttons in the Rich Text Editor, rather than manually typing in numbers or symbols.

• Learn more about headings
• Learn more about lists

Use descriptive link text

When adding links, make sure that the linked text describes the destination and avoids ambiguous link names such as “Click Here” or “Read More.” If there are many links, make sure that they all have unique text.

Make Text Readable 

• Use simple, readable sans serif fonts such as Arial
• Use 12pt or larger fonts
• Use sufficient color contrast
• Do not use color only to emphasize text - also use formatting such as bold or italics.
• Avoid using italics for more than a word or two
• Write in plain language wherever possible