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Instructor Accessibility Guide

The Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide for the Canvas LMS platform reviews Canvas pages for potential accessibility errors and prompts content authors with the necessary changes to fix issues. Powered by the same rules as the WAVE accessibility checker, the Instructor Accessibility Guide helps instructors make changes directly within their Canvas pages to create more accessible content.

How it Works

One challenge in using browser-based accessibility evaluations tools is that the entire page is reviewed. In the LMS environment, this means all the content you create as an instructor AND all the other page layout content is reviewed for accessibility issues. The problem is how do you know which errors and issues you can change versus errors that are part of the platform itself.

The Instructor Accessibility Guide is added to Canvas pages by adding JavaScript code to the custom theme editor. Once added, a Pope Tech icon will appear next to the Save button for any WYSIWYG editor in the Canvas platform. Pressing the Pope Tech icon will launch the guide on the right side of the page.

 

 

The Instructor Accessibility Guide only checks the page content that an instructor has created or can edit. This focuses the evaluation process on those accessibility issues that can be addressed by the instructor and does not flag errors that may be intrinsic to the LMS platform itself.

How to Request

Please complete the Request the Instructor Accessibility Guide form. You will need to provide:

  1. Name and email address
  2. Main Canvas domain URL (e.g., collegename.instructure.com)
  3. Test Canvas domain URL (optional)
  4. The local email address for instructors to contact if questions arise

Once your request is received, Pope Tech will respond with instructions for adding the code to the Canvas custom theme editor. Please note that processing may take up to four business days.

Cost

The Instructor Accessibility Guide is made available at no cost to California Community Colleges through the CCC Accessibility Center license.

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