Quality Quest: Crafting Quality Online Courses

Accessibility Is Not a Checkbox. It Is How You Build.

What You're Doing

This page establishes accessibility as a design habit you will practice every time you create something in Canvas. It is not a final step or a compliance checklist. It is part of how you build.

A common misconception is that accessibility means students can open or access the content. Accessibility is determined by the choices you make every time you create a page, write a link, add an image, upload a document, or embed a video. A student may be able to open your page and still be completely unable to use it.

Every build page in Quality Quest includes a Make It Accessible section so accessible design becomes a habit from the start.

What Accessibility Means

Accessibility means every student can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with your course content regardless of how they access it.

This includes students who:

Use a screen reader because they are blind or have low vision
Cannot use a mouse and navigate by keyboard only
Are deaf or hard of hearing and cannot access audio-only content
Have cognitive or learning disabilities that affect how they process information
Use mobile devices or assistive technology

Accessibility is not determined by whether a student can open something. It is determined by the choices you make when you create it.

The Design Choices That Determine Accessibility

Every time you create a page, upload a document, add an image, write a link, or embed a video, you are making accessibility decisions. The choices below are the ones you will practice throughout Quality Quest. Open the expander to review them now before you start building.

Review the accessible design choices you need to know

Heading Structure

Use Canvas Heading styles (Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.) to organize page content. Do not simulate headings by making text bold or increasing the font size.

Screen readers use headings to navigate a page. Without proper headings, a screen reader user hears the entire page as one undifferentiated block of text with no way to skip to the section they need.

Accessible: Use Heading styles from the Canvas toolbar in the correct order: H2, then H3, then H4. Never skip a level.
Inaccessible: Bold or enlarged text used to look like a heading. It appears as a heading to a sighted user but is invisible to a screen reader.

Descriptive Link Text

Write link text that describes where the link goes. Do not use "click here," "read more," or raw URLs.

Screen readers can pull a list of every link on a page. If every link says "click here," that list is useless to a student navigating by link.

Accessible: "Review the 2027 CVC Course Design Rubric"
Inaccessible: "Click here," "Read more," or a raw URL

Alternative Text for Images

Every image you add to Canvas needs a written description (alt text) that is read aloud by a screen reader, unless the image is purely decorative.

Students who cannot see the image need to know what information it contains. A blank alt text field, "image," or a file name communicates nothing.

Accessible: A meaningful description of what the image shows and why it is there
Inaccessible: Blank alt text, "image.jpg," or "photo"

Color and Contrast

Ensure text is readable against its background and that color is never the only way meaning is communicated.

Students with low vision or color blindness may not be able to distinguish certain colors or read low-contrast text.

Accessible: High-contrast text; labels or symbols used alongside color to communicate meaning
Inaccessible: Light gray text on a white background; "items marked in red are required"

Lists

Use the Canvas list tool to create bulleted or numbered lists. Do not manually type dashes or numbers as plain text.

Properly formatted lists are announced and navigated correctly by screen readers. Manually typed dashes or numbers are read as plain text with no list structure.

Accessible: Use the list button in the Canvas Rich Content Editor toolbar
Inaccessible: Typing "- item" or "1. item" as plain text

Accessible Documents

Every document you create and every document you share in your course must be accessible. This applies regardless of where the document came from.

For documents you create: Word documents, PowerPoints, and PDFs must use proper heading structure, descriptive links, alt text for images, and readable formatting. Avoid scanned PDFs entirely. A scanned PDF is an image of text and cannot be read by a screen reader. When possible, place content directly on a Canvas page instead of in a document.

For documents from other sources: Publisher materials, OER documents, and files from external sources are not automatically accessible. Before requiring students to use any document, check it for accessibility. If it has barriers you cannot remediate, provide an accessible alternative.

Accessible: A properly structured Word document or Canvas page with headings, alt text, and descriptive links
Inaccessible: A scanned PDF, an untagged PDF, or a document with images of text and no alt text

Captions and Transcripts

Provide captions for videos and transcripts for audio content, including videos you create and videos you embed from other sources.

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing cannot access audio-only content. Auto-generated captions are a starting point but must be reviewed and corrected for accuracy.

Accessible Tables

Use tables only for data, not for page layout, and include proper column or row headers.

Screen readers read tables in a specific sequence. A table used to create a visual layout produces a confusing, unusable experience for a screen reader user.

Accessible: Simple data tables with clearly labeled headers
Inaccessible: A table used to arrange text or images side by side on a page

Third-Party and Publisher Content

You are responsible for the accessibility of everything you require students to use, including publisher platforms, OER materials, external websites, and YouTube videos.

If a required resource has known accessibility barriers, you must identify the barrier and provide an accessible alternative. Check external websites for an accessibility statement. If you are using a publisher course pack, contact your publisher representative to ask about their accessibility compliance.

Want to go deeper?

The Faculty Accessibility and Universal Design Course is a full course dedicated to accessible course design. If accessibility is new to you or you want to strengthen your practice, this is the place to start.

Tools That Help You Build and Check Accessibly

Accessibility tools can help you catch problems and learn better design habits as you build. Keep in mind that no tool can catch everything. A zero-error report does not mean your course is fully accessible. Automated checkers cannot evaluate whether alt text is meaningful, whether your heading structure makes logical sense, or whether your instructions are clear to all learners. Use these tools as a starting point, not a finish line. Manual review is always required alongside them.

Pope Tech Guide: Check Every Page Before You Save

The Pope Tech Guide is built directly into the Canvas Rich Content Editor. Every time you finish creating or editing a page, click the "P" button at the bottom of the editor before you save. It catches common accessibility issues on the spot, before they are saved into your course.

Every time you create or edit a Canvas page: click P, then Save. Make this an automatic habit.

Look for the "P" button to the left of the Cancel, Save, or Publish buttons.

Accessibility First: Always hit the P before saving

Pope Tech Dashboard: Scan Your Entire Course

The Pope Tech Dashboard scans your entire course across all pages and content at once. It is far more comprehensive than checking one page at a time. You will use it at two key points in Quality Quest: after you complete your prototype module and again when your full course is complete.

Access the Pope Tech Accessibility Course

Canvas Accessibility Checker

The Canvas Accessibility Checker is also built into the Rich Content Editor. Use it alongside the Pope Tech Guide as an additional check while you are editing.

Need help with a specific accessibility problem? Contact the ATRC for support with checking and remediating course content.

Accessibility Throughout Quality Quest

Accessibility is part of how you build, not a separate task at the end. Here is how it is embedded throughout Quality Quest:

Every build page includes a Make It Accessible section with specific guidance for what you are creating on that page.
When you complete your prototype module, you will run a full Pope Tech Dashboard scan before duplicating it so you are not copying accessibility problems throughout your course.
You will run another full accessibility scan on your completed course before it goes live.

The habits you build now, heading structure, descriptive links, alt text, accessible documents, captions, and the P button, are what will make your completed course accessible to every student.

CVC Connection

In the 2027 CVC Course Design Rubric, accessibility is foundational. It is not a separately scored section. It is a prerequisite for the entire review process.

A course will not be peer reviewed for rubric alignment until it has been verified to be accessible. This includes all content in the course: pages you create, documents you upload, videos you embed, and any third-party or publisher materials you require students to use. If a required resource has accessibility barriers that cannot be remediated, an accessible alternative must be provided before the course goes to review.

Accessibility considerations are also embedded throughout the 2027 rubric elements. Every section of the rubric assumes accessible course design as the baseline.

Coming from the 2020 Rubric?

In the 2020 rubric, accessibility was Section D (D1-D16), a separately scored section. In the 2027 rubric, Section D no longer exists as a scored section. The accessibility work did not disappear. It became a prerequisite. A course must be verified as accessible before it can be peer reviewed for rubric alignment. The expectations are just as real. They are now foundational rather than scored.

Before You Move On

Confirm the following before continuing to the next page:

I understand that accessibility is determined by how I build, not just whether students can open something.
I have reviewed the design choices that determine whether my course content is accessible.
I understand that every document I create and every document I share must be accessible, regardless of where it came from.
I know that if a required resource has accessibility barriers I cannot fix, I must provide an accessible alternative.
I know to click the P button before saving every Canvas page.
I know where to find the Pope Tech Accessibility Course and the ATRC for additional support.
I understand that automated checkers are a starting point, not a guarantee of full accessibility.
I understand that my course must be verified as accessible before it can be peer reviewed for rubric alignment.

Need help our support with Accessibility or using the Canvas accessibility checkers? Connect with either the Palomar Instructional Designer or ATRC