Ensuring accessibility in online content is essential for providing equal access, promoting usability, fulfilling ethical responsibilities, and complying with the law. Violating these laws can lead to severe consequences, including the loss of funding and legal action. By considering accessibility in our online content, we ensure that everyone can engage with it effectively.
EQUALITY
Everyone receives the same support, regardless of need.
EQUITY
Individuals are given different support or accommodations to enable access.
INCLUSION
Everyone has access. There is no need for support or accommodations.
Our community is made up of individuals with varying hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive abilities. In order to ensure equal access, making content accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities, is critical to online learning. It promotes inclusivity, enhances usability, and ensures compliance with legal obligations. At CFCC, we prioritize accessibility because it aligns with our mission to be an inclusive institution. To ensure learning opportunities are available to all users, CFCC offers accessibility support services and educational resources for faculty, staff, and students. Visit the CFCC Student Accessibility Services webpage or email sas@cfcc.edu for more information.
All colleges are required to make educational materials accessible and provide reasonable accommodations when needed. Learn more about the law by reading about ADA Standards for Accessible Design here.
Ready to check and make your content more accessible?
Please visit the Making Content Accessible section of this page.
Email canvas@cfcc.edu for assistance and training requests.
Please review All About Accessibility presentation created by the Office of Student Accessibility Services to learn about the Definition of Disability, Laws, Accommodations, how they are provided at CFCC, and other tips and resources.
Yuja's Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform helps identify and fix accessibility issues in digital course content on Canvas and provides alternative formats for users with learning disabilities.
Ready to get started? Visit the Getting Started with Panorama for Instructors in Canvas page.
Accessibility Score icons are located next to each file type or along the top of HTML content and provide a quick at-a-glance summary of the Accessibility Score based on their color.
The blue circle is for student view.
The green hexagon is for accessibility scores greater than 70%.
The yellow triangle is for accessibility scores between 30% and 70%.
The red octagon is for accessibility scores less than or equal to 30%.
The grey prohibition sign is for documents with disabled alternative formats.
Panorama will generate Accessibility Scores for DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, PDF, HTML, TXT, GIF, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP, ODS, RTF file types, and editable HTML pages.
Identify, Prioritize, and Resolve Issues with Remediation Engines
To start remediating a document, select the Accessibility Icon to access the Accessibility Report. Panorama will describe the issue, suggest ways to fix it, and guide you through the steps with video guides and images. You can fix some issues directly in Canvas by clicking Fix Issue:
YuJa Panorama detects font size issues in text-based documents, and you can update the font size directly from the Accessibility Report with the click of a button.
Resolve color contrast issues in documents and presentations by using the right color contrast ratios to make content legible, easy to read and navigate, to foster inclusivity.
Seamlessly integrate descriptive text to images in documents and other content right from Canvas. When images don’t appear or can’t be seen, users can still comprehend and engage with visual content in your course.
The YuJa Remediation Engine flags ineffective hyperlink text and enables you to update and display language that’s easy to understand for those who rely on screen readers.
In YuJa Panorama, you can create a To-Do List of documents to review and enhance accessibility. Documents can be updated in the to-do list or the original documents.
After making your changes, click Add Change and repeat these steps for any additional fixes you want to make. When you are satisfied with all your changes, click Update Document. Panorama will apply your changes and reprocess your document.
For more information and a visual step-by-step guide, visit Yuja's Using the Panorama Remediation Engine page.
Want to learn more? Visit the Yuja Panorama page for more information.
Headings and order: Use heading elements to distinguish between titles and text and to indicate their hierarchy in a logical and sequential order.
Meaningful titles: Use section headings and meaningful titles for each topic to aid in navigation and understanding.
Bullet point lists: Use proper list elements and finish each item with the appropriate punctuation, e.g., comma, period, etc.
Alt text: Provide a meaningful and complete description relevant to your teaching purpose in alt tag.
High-quality images: Provide images with good resolution and contrast.
No text images: Avoid using images with just text and use normal text instead. Don't use scientific notation as an image; use MATHJAX or LaTeX instead.
Closed captions: Provide closed captions that synchronize with the spoken words and sounds.
Transcripts: Make transcripts of audio and video recordings readily available to improve searchability and readability.
No Autoplay: The player should allow the viewer to stop and play the content at their own pace with controls of the player accessible on the keyboard.
Descriptive and unique link text: Avoid using generic phrases such as "Click here" or "Download".
Page title instead of URL: Use the name of the page or site as the link text, rather than the URL. Keep the language simple, clear, and consistent.
Links should look like links: Differentiate links from regular text by using appropriate styling such as underlining and contrasting colors.
Plain language: Use concise and consistent language, terminology, and page structure throughout the course.
Limit capitalization: Avoid using capital letters excessively, making it harder to read. Only use where appropriate, such as for acronyms or logos.
Color contrast: Ensure adequate contrast between text and background. Be cautious when using light shades, particularly grey and yellow.
Simple tables: Use one table per topic and one piece of data per cell. Avoid nested tables for easy navigation.
Headers on columns and rows: Define headers for each column and row, both technically and visually, to create a more organized and easier-to-read table.
Tables are for data: Only use tables to organize data, not for styling or layout. Keep them simple. Do not use images or screenshots of tables.
Register for the QM's Address Accessibility Challenges course with the Accessibility & Usability Resource Site (AURS). This QM course is free and open to everyone, AURS provides the online community with important information on addressing key accessibility and usability concerns.
Accessibility Training courses are intended to improve your understanding of IT accessibility and Section 508 law and help you produce digital tools and content that conform to the Revised 508 Standards.
A Tutorial for Making Online Learning Accessible to Students with Disabilities. These instructional materials provide a path forward in improving existing offerings and designing new ones that ensure that all students can benefit from online educational opportunities.
Designing an Accessible Online Course. This toolkit was developed to help ensure that a change to an online format does not result in a lack of access for students with disabilities.
2022-2023 State & Federal Accessibility Guidelines. Get your copy of the updated 2022-2023 State & Federal Accessibility Guidelines eBook today.
The Revised 508 Standards include accessibility standards for IT tools, systems, and electronic content such as documents, web pages, presentations, social media content, blogs, and certain emails.
VLC Center: Quick Tips and Requirements page for designing online content that meets accessibility requirements explores the law, compliance standards, online courses, web development, and social media.
Web Accessibility Initiative's Making the Web Accessible page provides strategies, standards, and supporting resources to help you make the Web more accessible to people with disabilities.
QM Digital Accessibility White Paper Series summarizes the accessibility policies and practices of Quality Matters member institutions and presents timely recommendations for developing inclusive online materials.
The Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Project looks at the structure and organization of postsecondary online education in the U.S. and documents steps to achieve stability, reliability, and consistency.
CFCC Online Course ADA Checklist provides the steps necessary to ensure any course material in Canvas is accessible in compliance with the ADA.
WebAIM Word and PowerPoint Evaluation Checklist reviews how to use the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Office 2016 and newer.
National Center on Disability and Access to Education Cheatsheets are one-page accessibility resources developed to assist anyone who is creating accessible content and catered to individuals with any technical skill level.
Create Accessible Digital Products page is provided by the federal agency responsible for ensuring that information, services, and other electronic content such as documents, web pages, presentations, social media content, blogs, and certain emails are accessible to persons with disabilities.
Make your Google documents accessible page by following these tips to make them more readable by everyone, including people with disabilities.
Purdue University's Tables page explores what makes a table accessible so users with screen readers can navigate through data tables one cell at a time.
Create and verify PDF accessibility (Acrobat Pro) page explains how to create PDFs to meet common accessibility standards by using a built-in accessibility checker and instructions for items that require manual fixes.
WebAIM Visual Disabilities page explores ways to ensure that content is perceivable and understandable for people using various assistive technologies.
Universal Design Center's Web Accessibility Criteria - Color Contrast page introduces the importance of color contrast, best practice examples, and ways to test your content.
WebAIM Alternative Text page provides information about textual substitutes for non-text content in web pages. These principles apply to multimedia and other non-text content too.
This NC State IT Accessibility Playlist provides video tutorials on the following topics:
Accessibility and Accommodation
Accommodation and Accessibility: A Student's Perspective
Making Accessible Color Choices
Understanding Document Structure
Understanding Alternative Text
Accessible Google Documents
Creating Accessible Tables
Accessible Microsoft Word Documents
Understanding the Accessibility Checker
Accessible Hyperlinks
Creating an Accessible Scanned PDF
Using Transcripts and Captions in Videos
Using Descriptive Language in Videos
Access Navigation Video
Accessible Text
This video will assist instructors with creating accessible Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and PowerPoint documents.
Running time 13:29
This video demonstrates how to edit the auto-captioning so that the correct words appear when close-captioned.
Running time 6:11
This video demonstrates how to perform the Accessibility Check using Adobe Pro, and fix identified accessibility issues.
Running time 2:41