Instructor Accessibility Guide

Stanford provides access to the Instructor Accessibility Guide through Canvas

The Instructor Accessibility Guide identifies errors focused on the design of the Canvas Page and checks for features like headings levels, alternative text for images, or the appropriate level of color contrast of text. The Instructor Accessibility Guide also includes alerts, which are suggested strategies for checking the accessibility of external content, such as YouTube videos.

 Instructor Accessibility Guide 

While Canvas has a built-in Accessibility Checker that detects common accessibility errors within the rich text editor, some instructors have commented that this tool does not always provide clear guidance on how to fix the identified issue(s). Stanford’s Office of Digital Accessibility (SODA) recommends using the Instructor Accessibility Guide (IAG) instead.

The Instructor Accessibility Guide and Canvas

• The Instructor Accessibility Guide can be selected from the bottom menu when editing a Canvas Page. The guide appears on the right side of the screen and displays a list of elements that are checked on the page. These include images, links, text, color contrast, headings, tables, lists, documents, and videos.
• The IAG tool is automatically installed in all Canvas courses and is identified by a button with a white “P” icon against a circular dark blue background. The IAG button is located to the left of the Cancel button.
• Once activated, the IAG appears as a panel on the right side of the screen and displays a list of elements checked on the page, along with the number of identified errors and alerts.

Additional Resources 

• For a detailed video tutorial, please visit gocanvas.stanford.edu and navigate to the Video Tutorials tab.  The Instructor Accessibility Guide video tutorial is approximately 11 minutes long.
• To learn more about the Instructor Accessibility Guide best practices, please visit Stanford’s Office of Accessible Education. Sign up for Instructional Accessibility Modules, which provide an overview of how to use the Instructor Accessibility Guide and other accessibility strategies.
• For scanned .pdfs, we recommend utilizing SCRIBE.
  • For a detailed Video tutorial, please visit gocanvas.stanford.edu and navigate to the Video Tutorials tab.  The SCRIBE video tutorial is approximately 6 minutes long.
  • To learn more about SCRIBE best practices, please visit Stanford’s Office of Accessible Education SCRIBE Conversion Best Practices. 

Questions?

• Need help with instructional topics or course assistance? CTL Consultation Request Form
• Have a Canvas issue? Get help at Go Canvas
• Have questions about the Instructor Accessibility Guide? Contact us at instructional-accessibility@lists.stanford.edu
• The COP- Accessibility Slack Channel is available to ask questions and share experiences.