Design for Accessibility

Accessibility in Design and in Action

The UN and all its member countries agree that accessibility is a human right for peoples with disabilities. When designing courses with accessibility as one of the three pillars, the W3C organization can be a key resource. 

Introduction to Web Accessibility and W3C Standards Links to an external site. video by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Links to an external site. 

It is important to design for accessibility to allow all students to have an effective learning experience. In order to make digital content and media elements accessible, try to:

  • describe your visuals (images, icons, graphics)
  • transcribe your media (supplement video or audio with text transcription)
  • describe your hyperlinks (avoid just writing 'click here')

Useful Guides

[The BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Links to an external site., except where otherwise noted. Additional material has been adapted from the edX Accessibility Best Practices for Developing Course Content Links to an external site. guidelines under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License Links to an external site.]

Accessibility Tools

UBC has licensed a tool called Ally Links to an external site. which can be easily integrated into Canvas. It allows students to download documents in alternative formats like audio or electronic braille and provides practical guidance on how to make changes to improve accessibility.

ascreenshot of Ally's interface in Canvas, highlighting the type of course content and the number of content that needs to be fixed

Contact ETS Links to an external site. to request an accessibility scan and get Ally integrated into your Canvas course.

Screenreader Support in Canvas

  • Mac: VoiceOver (latest version for Safari)
  • PC: JAWS (latest version for Firefox)
  • PC: NVDA (latest version for Firefox)
  • Chrome: No screen reader support available