The guidelines for accessibility compliance for WCAG 2.1 AA are thorough, comprehensive, and occasionally technically complex. But!

Almost all digital accessibility issues can be adjusted with standard desktop software you are already using.

Ten Steps Closer to Accessible

Color

Colors used must be dark or light enough to contrast against their background.
Don't use color alone to communicate important information.

Color in Universal Design

Thoughtful use of color makes a big difference for the experience of all students in your course! Low contrast colors usually don't translate well in black and white, and different screens and devices can interpret color quite differently. Using high contrast colors is both visually impactful AND comes across well in different mediums.

Microsoft Office themes are notoriously inaccessible.

If using any color other than black for text, stick to the far left and right swatches in the standard colors menu.

screenshot of the standard colors options in Microsoft word. the accessible colors - the first from the left, and the three from the right - are identified with a checkmark.

If you're using the Rich Content Editor in Canvas, the options for color under the Font and Highlight menus are safe to use, assuming the font colors are against a white background and highlights cover black text.

screenshot of the available color swatches in the Canvas rich content editor

Practice!

How to use the WebAIM Contrast Checker

Navigate to the WebAIM contrast checker at webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker
Click the Foreground Color Picker and use the eyedropper tool to select your text color
Click the Background Color Picker and use the eyedropper tool to select your background color
WebAIM will calculate the ratio of contrast between your two colors.
- The minimum ration for accessible contrast is 4.5:1
- If your colors don't meet this ratio, select a new color and test again until the ratio is met.

Text

Use underlining only for links - emphasize important points in other ways, like bolding or italics.
Set all fonts to 9pt or larger.
Whenever possible, use a sans serif font like Arial, Aptos or Calibri.

All the available fonts in Canvas are sans-serif. If writing in Word or PowerPoint, here are some other popular options.

screenshot of popular sans-serif fonts: Arial, Lucida Sans, Calibri, Microsoft Sans Serif, Century Gothic, Tahoma, Franklin Gothic Book, Trebuchet MS, Lato, and Verdana

The Fall of Times New Roman

Why don't we recommend serif fonts? Short answer: they're very hard to read on a screen, especially on small screens. Consider this example. Which is easier to read, the paragraph on the left or right?

screenshot of two paragraphs of lorem ipsum text. on the left the font is times new roman, on the right, the font is calibri. Calibri is demonstrably easier to read.

Images

Position images in Word documents so they are "In Line with Text" - not off to the left or right with text wrapping around them.
Images should have descriptions (either as alt text or in an accompanying paragraph) that shares the context or purpose of the image.

Writing good Alt Text

Don't overthink alt text! A good rule of thumb is to think of how you would describe the image to someone if you were reading the content over a phone. What do they need to know to understand the image in the context of rest of the material?

Why does 'in-line' matter?

Images should be placed 'in-line' because word processors are designed to create content that is read linearly. Whether it's Word, Google Docs, Pages or another software meant primarily for writing documents, this rule will apply.

screenshot of the MS word Image menu, with the wrap text dropdown expanded to show the "in line with text" option.

Practice!

Adding alt text to an image in Canvas

Navigate to a Page in Canvas where you have an image.
Click the Image and you'll see a popup for "Image Options".
Click the Image Options button to open the slider on the right side of your screen.

Does your image have alt text? Is the alt text appropriate for the image?

HINT: If an image is uploaded directly into Canvas without alt text, Canvas will insert the file name as a placeholder. Make sure your alt text actually fits what the image is!

Readability

Include at least one Heading 1 in documents and subsequent headings (H2, H3, etc.) if it is three pages or longer.
Use the Reading Order tool in PowerPoint to check that your slides are 'read' correctly.

Headings as Structure

Headings provide a visual indication of structure in a document, but their purpose is ultimately structural. This is why increasing the font size or weight does not provide the same accessibility functionality as using the Heading Styles. However, you can customize the appearance of Headings to match your own tastes.

Common Mistakes

Applying headings isn't technically difficult, so much so that it can be easy to add more than you mean to. A 'hard return' after a Heading in Word will preserve the styling in the empty line, which is visible when looking at the Navigation pane.

A good way to avoid this is to write everything first, and apply your Headings last.

screenshot of the MS Word navigation pane, highlighting an extra space made by an empty header line.

Practice!

Can you find the Heading Styles area in the Canvas Rich Content Editor?

HINT: Canvas Page titles are already coded as your Heading 1, so additional headings should always start with Heading 2.

Multimedia

Use a media player that supports closed captions and allows playback to be stopped and started by the viewer.

Kaltura - Your Secret Weapon

Kaltura Media is a private media host integrated with Canvas. You can use it to quickly capture video, desktop screen captures, but also to upload video created from other software (your own raw footage, Camtasia or Snagit content, etc.) and the Kaltura software will automatically apply captions to that content.

YouTube and Kaltura

Want to use a YouTube video but it doesn't have captions? You can use Kaltura to 'scoop' the video from YouTube into Canvas, which not only applies captions automatically, but also blocks ads.

screenshot of the Kaltura Embed menu, with the Add New dropdown expanded to show the options to upload media, express capture, add YouTube or Video Quiz

Practice!

To access the caption editor, you will need to open the video in your Kaltura My Media from within Canvas.

Click the title of video you want to edit.
Scroll below the video preview, and expand the Actionsdropdown.
Click Edit
From the edit menu, click the Captionstab, then the Edit Captions button.
In the Captioning interface, scroll through your video's captions and edit as needed.
Save your changes to apply.

For WCAG compliance, your goal is 100% accurate captions. At a minimum ensure all discipline specific content is spelled correctly and that captions do not contain any inappropriate language.