Center for Academic Technologies

Digital Accessibility

Create Accessible Courses

At California State University Monterey Bay, Canvas is the standard Learning Management System (LMS) for all courses across our institution. Canvas provides a unified platform for students to access course materials, submit assignments, collaborate with peers, and communicate with instructors. 

All faculty should use Canvas to manage and deliver course content, communicate with students, and facilitate online learning activities. Canvas provides a robust, user-friendly platform that integrates with our campus systems and supports various educational technologies.

Creating an accessible course does not have to be a daunting task. We have powerful tools like Access 4All (UDOIT) and the Canvas Accessibility Checker available in Canvas courses. We also have resources that are a part of our ongoing commitment to creating inclusive and accessible learning environments.

Check out the tools and resources below to learn more.

  • Access4All is a new accessibility toolkit designed to help faculty manage their content and improve accessibility in their courses. In addition, Access4All provides students the ability to download alternate formats of Canvas pages and files. 

    Access4All provides professors two main tools:

    TidyUp 

    1. Easily identify and remove files that are no longer in use in your course.

    2. See exactly where content is linked or embedded.

    3. Locate and delete empty folders that may be cluttering your course’s file storage.

    4. Review a complete list of your course’s pages, assignments, quizzes, and discussions.

    TidyUp Beginner Video Series

    Before using TidyUp, we highly recommend that course owners review the following excerpt from TidyUp’s video series training: TidyUp - Before You Delete

    UDOIT:

    1. Scan your course modules and files for accessibility errors and suggestions. 
    2. Fix content in the rich text editor directly in UDOIT. 
    3. Replace files easily with accessible ones. 
    4. Instant access to alternate formats for your students

    UDOIT Beginner Video Series

  • Canvas courses have a built-in tool known as the Canvas Accessibility Checker. It's seamlessly integrated into the Rich Content Editor in Canvas, offering an easy way to ensure your course content is accessible to all learners.

    The Canvas Accessibility Checker is designed to identify and highlight potential accessibility issues in your course content, from text to images and everything in between. It not only identifies these issues, it also offers practical suggestions for fixing them.

    How to use the Canvas Accessibility Checker as an instructor (written).

  • Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines (UDL page)

    Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.