Digital Accessibility Resources

About Digital Accessibility

Digital accessibility involves creating web and media content that everyone can use, regardless of their abilities. Digital accessibility includes practices such as appropriate use of colors, descriptive text in links, logical document structure, and alternative text for images, among others. There is a new Department of Justice requirement that all University websites, Canvas course materials, and other digital content (such as Word documents, slide presentations, videos, and images) produced by the University meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Level 2.1 AA by April 2026. Instructors have a legal and ethical duty to ensure their courses are accessible to all students. By embracing digital accessibility, we can enhance student engagement, reduce learning barriers, and streamline the teaching process.

The Digital Education and Innovation team has gathered resources to help you meet accessibility guidelines.

Receive Direct Support

If you are preparing for the upcoming semester and would like to speak with someone about applying digital accessibility practices to your courses, reach out to us at deiteam@umn.edu.

Start Small, Start Now with Digital Accessibility

If you’re learning about digital accessibility for the first time, start by learning the 7 Core Skills. You can incorporate digital accessibility into Canvas, writing emails, and documents you create, such as Word or Google Docs, slide presentations, and web pages. We recommended you start with one of the skills and move onto the next one once you are comfortable. 

The 7 Core Skills are:

• Alternative text

• Contrast

• Headings

• Links

• Lists

• Tables

• Video and audio

View a recording of the 7 Core Skills for Digital Accessibility (Kaltura, 44:37).

Accessibility in Canvas

A Plan for Accessibility: The 3Rs Strategy

You might be thinking about your course and wondering where to start. Consider the 3Rs Strategy: Remove, Revise, and Right First. 

Start with the first R: Remove

Focus on removing outdated or unused content for the upcoming semester. If you are reusing content from a prior semester, first import a copy of that content into your new semester site, then review the new Canvas site content to determine what to keep, what to archive, and what to delete. Note that all materials in a Canvas site where students are or will be enrolled must meet accessibility standards, even unpublished materials or activities that are not visible to students. Do not use courses with student enrollment to store unpublished items long term.

Revise

Evaluate the content you want to keep to determine if there are any accessibility issues and make corrections.

Right First

As you create new content, include accessibility in your design process so that your materials are accessible from the beginning. 

Related Resource Guides

• Archiving Course Content in Canvas

• The Check: This is a guide to help CEHD instructors create user-friendly course sites for students, whether you are teaching fully online, in-person, or some blend of the two.

• Resource Guide for Faculty & Instructors: Creating Accessible Digital Content: Created by the Office of Digital Accessibility, this guide provides step-by-step guidance on how to create Canvas course content and other digital content that meets new accessibility requirements and can be equitably accessed by disabled community members.

UDOIT

The Universal Design Online [content] Inspection Tool (UDOIT) is available in all Canvas sites. If you don't see it, you will need to enable it in your course navigation. Learn how to Use UDOIT to Scan a Course for Accessibility Issues. 

• View a recording of Using UDOIT to Apply the 7 Core Skills for Digital Accessibility Zoom Recording (Kaltura, 33:06)

• UDOIT Errors and Suggestions (Google doc): If you're not sure what an error or suggestion means in UDOIT, check this complete list of all the errors and suggestions flagged by UDOIT and how you can fix them.

Canvas Accessibility Checker

The Canvas Accessibility Checker (CAC) is a tool available anywhere there is a the Rich Content Editor (RCE), for example, on pages, assignments, discussions. When editing content in the RCE, you will see a notification number appear next to the CAC icon (the icon looks like a circle around a stick person) when there is an accessibility issue. The icon is located on the bottom right of the RCE window. Learn more by viewing How do I use the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor?

Accessibility Beyond Canvas

Many tools and services aim to improve digital accessibility but there isn't a magic tool that does it all. Use these tools in conjunction with communicating with your students to ensure that their individual needs are met. Accessibility in the Media You Produce provides simple practices you can do to increase accessibility.

Google products

• Google Workspace user guide to accessibility

• How to use Automatic captions in Google Slides: Like all auto captioning services, the automatic captions will likely not be 100% accurate. Using a microphone, speaking clearly, and reducing background noise will increase the accuracy.

• Add Subtitles and Captioning to YouTube videos

Microsoft products

• Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities

  • Instructions for the Accessibility Checker are available within Microsoft Office products.

• Make your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities: This page gives you step-by-step instructions and best practices for making your Excel spreadsheets accessible to everyone.

Kaltura

• Edit the machine-generated captions on your Kaltura Mediaspace videos.

Zoom

• Turn on automatic live captions in Zoom meetings and webinars. Like all auto captioning services, the automatic captions will likely not be 100% accurate. Using a microphone, speaking clearly, and reducing background noise will increase the accuracy.

General Online Accessibility Resources

• WebAIM - Web Accessibility: Includes tools such as a contrast checker (to make sure text is legible in different colors), a plugin for creating accessible PDFs, and WAVE to evaluate online accessibility.

• Image Accessibility Creator: Get AI assistance with writing alt text for complex images. (Disclaimer: AI generators may or may not accurately describe images. Additionally, the description might not be the appropriate alt text depending on the context in the rest of the page.)

Inclusive Teaching Practices

• Teaching with Access & Inclusion (TAI): A workshop available to UMN faculty and staff that explains concepts, principles and practices of incorporating accessibility and inclusion in everyday teaching approaches.

• Use Inclusive Teaching Strategies: Offers ideas on how to design in-class and online activities, content, and instruction to be more accessible and inclusive for all students. 

• Our Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment guide includes practical recommendations for courses, whether you are teaching fully online, in-person, or some blend of the two.

Self-Paced Online Trainings

• Take the Fundamentals of Disability Accommodations and Inclusive Course Design, a one-hour professional development course that is required for anyone who is teaching at the University. The three modules focus on disability accommodations and inclusive course design.

• Digital Accessibility Badging Program has self-paced training courses on a variety of topics, such as a foundations course and how to create accessible slide presentations and documents.

Office for Digital Accessibility

The Office for Digital Accessibility (ODA) is a newly created, system-wide entity designated to provide resources and services to the University of Minnesota community in support of the creation, development, and procurement of accessible electronic content and services. Some of the resources we’d like to highlight are:

• University policy from the Office of Digital Accessibility 

• Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments

• Final Rule (PDF) on Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities

  • Instructors Accommodating Accessibility: Clarifying instructors' role in making courses accessible for all students 

  • Accessibility is everyone's work: Explains our collective responsibility to adopt and implement digital accessibility.

Office for Equity & Diversity

The Office for Equity & Diversity Education Program offers the course, Ableism & Disability Justice, as part of their Equity Certificate Hosted Online (ECHO) program. The course runs for 1.5-2 hours on Zoom. 

• The Step by Step ECHO Guide offers additional information on how to complete the full ECHO program and receive a certificate.

• Accessibility Ambassadors: a group of University staff who are passionate about making UMN digital resources more accessible online. The group offers monthly webinars on a variety of digital accessibility topics.

  • View a list of their upcoming and previous events and their recordings.