The Course Accessibility Report is available in all Canvas courses and can be found likely at the bottom of your Canvas Course Menu. This tool is visible for instructors and is not visible to students. It is meant to provide insight into how accessible your course content is and to help you understand various improvements that can be made to make your course more inclusive and accessible to all learners.
The report is separated into two areas: Overview and Content.
The Overview area is divided into four main sections:
- Overall Course Score (shown as a percentage)
- Course content grouped by type (shown as a donut graph)
- “Content with the easiest issues to fix” or “Fix low scoring content.”
- Remaining Issues (listed at the bottom in order of priority from severe to minor)
Below you will find a brief explanation of each section.
Overall Course Score
The top of the report shows an accessibility score for your course. Scores range from Low to “Perfect”. The higher the score, the fewer the issues.
Low (0-33%): Needs help! There are many issues in this course that need attention.
Medium (34-66%): A little better. This course is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.
High (67-99%): Almost there. The course is accessible but more improvements are possible.
Perfect (100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.
Course Content Graph
Directly below the course score is the donut graph of all content in your course grouped by content type. Next to the graph is a key that lists the content type from largest to smallest. Clicking the View button below the list will take you to the Content area (more information later in this article).
Currently, Ally checks files in these formats:
- PDF files
- Microsoft® Word files
- Microsoft® PowerPoint® files
- OpenOffice/LibreOffice files
- Uploaded HTML files
- Image files (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BPM, TIFF)
- Rich Content Editor content
- The results for Rich Content Editor content only appear in the Course accessibility report.
- YouTube videos embedded in Rich Content Editor content
“Content with the easiest issues to fix” or “Fix low scoring content”
The ALLY accessibility report categorizes content into 2 different categories to help instructors decide which content they would like to fix first.
The first is content with the easiest issues to fix, which contain documents that have easy to fix issues such as adding headings and adding image descriptions.
The second is content with a low accessibility score. Simply click the “Start” button and begin remediating any course content.
Remaining Issues
At the bottom of the accessibility report, course content is categorized based on the accessibility issue. The default organization is from severe to minor. However, you can organize this content based on the severity of the issue, the type of issue, or the number of documents containing an issue. Click on any of the categories to see all of the listed content and begin remediating. Select a piece of content to open the Instruction Feedback panel to fix the issue.
Severe. These issues are the greatest risk to accessibility and require the most attention.
Major. These issues impact accessibility, and while not severe, require attention.
Minor. These issues should be considered for a better accessibility score.
Content Area
In addition to the Overview area, you can select the Content tab (area) to view a paginated list of all issues identified in your course. The issues are organized by accessibility score and you have the option to reverse the order if you prefer.
As mentioned earlier, clicking the View button below the course content graph list will also take you to the Content area of the accessibility report.
