Evaluation Tools and Resources

Canvas Information

Our internal Canvas documentation in WCLD 101 was created with accessibility in mind, so that is your primary resource for course design. These are links to Canvas Guide resources that may be useful to you:

  • Accessibility Within Canvas Links to an external site.: Documentation by Instructure about Canvas, such as what browsers and screen readers are supported, the accessible design used in Canvas's interface, and so on.
  • Accessibility Checker in Canvas Links to an external site.: This tool is built into the Rich Content Editor (RCE) and can be used to check some basic page accessibility, but it will not catch everything. It is useful for
    • providing an easier way to create an accessible table (see the Table lesson for details),
    • testing color contrast for page text or background colors, and
    • fixing image alt text.
  • Ally Instructor Quickstart Guide Links to an external site.: Ally is a third-party tool that is integrated into Canvas. This checker tool will scan all of the files and Canvas content in your course and provide you with an accessibility score for each item, as well as an average score for the entire course. The tool will give you suggestions and shortcuts that will allow you to quickly identify and fix common accessibility issues. Students will also benefit from Ally in that it allows them to download files and Canvas content in alternative formats. It is important to note that Ally will not scan third-party content, including Evo pages, embedded interactives, and Kaltura videos. Ally should be turned on by default in all of your courses, but to enable the overall course report you will have to enable it via the course navigation settings. 

Manual Checks for Accessibility

These are some quick do-it-yourself testing strategies and some great resources on accessible practice, including relevant organizations.

  • Keyboard accessibility: Test by putting your cursor in the URL bar at the top of your screen and then pressing the Tab key to see if you can get to all of the page elements. Press Enter to activate links and the arrow keys for additional navigation. An accessible page will allow you to tab to and access all content in a logical order.
  • Magnification: Test your page for people with visual impairment by magnifying the page to 200%. How does the page look? Ideally the layout still makes sense and all page elements are visible.
  • Color for meaning: View the page in grayscale and see if you can still understand everything, particularly informational images that may use color for meaning. If you can't understand the page in grayscale, people with color blindness may not understand it either.
  • Color contrast: Test this in two ways:
    • Dim the brightness on your screen. 
    • Invert the colors.
      • Mac: Hold down Control + Option + Command + 8. (Repeat those keystrokes to turn that effect off.) Note that newer Macs don't have this function, so you need to go to Accessibility under System Preferences and check a box to invert colors.
      • PC: Type magnifier into the Start Menu search bar. When you select the program, a small window will appear on your screen (which will, at that point, be enlarged). In the window, choose the Options button. In the dialog box that appears, check the box to Turn on Color Inversion.
  • Manual Checks When Testing a Website for Accessibility Links to an external site.: Resource from Temple University.

Free Tools

Accessibility Agencies

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

In order to test for accessibility, you have to know what accessibility is. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Links to an external site. are written by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Links to an external site., which is a group within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Links to an external site.. That is what defines accessible practice on the web. In this course, we have a checklist that highlights the key guidelines to follow in our context.

Updated February, 2020