Accessible Course Content in CarmenCanvas
CarmenCanvas is Ohio State's learning management system (LMS), deployed for student and faculty use in Spring 2016.
Introduction
The accessibility of an individual's experience in CarmenCanvas depends on two things: the accessibility of the platform itself, and the accessibility of the content placed within it.
For learners with disabilities, successfully using CarmenCanvas depends on the accessibility of the course content provided in Carmen.
Ensuring that your course content — including Carmen Pages, PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoints, videos, and more — benefits not only learners with disabilities but all learners in the course.
Keep in mind that not all disabilities are visible, such as ADHD, color blindness, and reading disabilities, and not all students choose to self-identify or seek accommodations.
Those who create and share content in CarmenCanvas have a responsibility to ensure that content is provided in a way that makes it accessible to everyone in the course.
A tool call Ally has been added to Canvas to help review and fix content in CarmenCanvas to make it accessible. Ally is an AI-powered assistant that scans your CarmenCanvas course and provides actionable recommendations to help you improve the accessibility of your course content.
- A well-organized course is key to both accessibility and usability
- Page layout should be simple, clean, and uncluttered
- Navigation should be clear and consistent from page to page
- Pages should have unique and descriptive titles
- Use naming conventions consistently — if a reading is titled a certain way in the syllabus, use that same name throughout the course
- Organize content using Modules, structured by week or unit, to guide students through material in a logical, predictable sequence
Generate your course in Carmen early so students can prepare for the semester
Use Student View to confirm that your content is visible to students
Verify that all links and assignment dates are correct, especially if content was copied from a previous course
Run the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor before publishing
Use the Validate Links tool in Canvas to check for broken or outdated link
Use Ally to identify and address accessibility issues in uploaded course materials
Post your syllabus and publish your course before the first day of class
Ohio State's Title II compliance deadline under the ADA is April 24, 2026
All digital course content must meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Levels A and AA
Accessible" means a person with a disability can obtain information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability
These requirements apply to all learner-facing materials: CarmenCanvas pages, videos, emails, announcements, and shared documents
Accessibility compliance is about more than legal obligation — it is the right thing to do
- The Rich Content Editor (RCE) is used to create Announcements, Pages, Discussion prompts, and Assignment and Quiz instructions
- Because RCE content is web-based, digital accessibility best practices apply to everything created in it
- The built-in Accessibility Checker scans RCE content for common errors including heading structure, table structure, image alt text, text contrast, and link validity
- Errors can be identified and corrected before content is saved and published
- Links should use clear, descriptive text — avoid "click here" or raw URLs as link text
- Screen reader users navigate pages link by link, so descriptive link text is essential
- Ally scans all uploaded course content — documents, images, and RCE content — and assigns an accessibility score
- Scores range from Low to Perfect, color-coded to help prioritize which files need attention
- The Course Accessibility Report (accessible from course navigation) provides both an Overview tab and a Content tab for big-picture and item-level review
- Clicking on any flagged item opens the feedback panel, which previews the content and provides step-by-step guidance for fixing issues
- The report updates automatically as instructors make changes
- The goal by April 24, 2026 is documented, prioritized progress — not perfection
- Ally automatically checks for image descriptions in all image files and in documents containing images (PDFs, PowerPoints, etc.)
- Missing image descriptions can be added directly in Ally's feedback panel
- Ally's built-in AI assistant can auto-generate a suggested description — but instructors must review and edit it before submitting
- Purely decorative images can be flagged as decorative in the panel; no description is required for these
- Best practices for image descriptions:
- Describe the meaning and purpose of the image in context
- Keep alt text to 125 characters or fewer
- Do not begin with "image of" or "picture of" — screen readers already identify the object as an image
- For complex images like charts or diagrams, provide a short identifying description and link to a longer narrative
- Best practices for image descriptions:
- You can practice writing appropriate alternative text for a variety of image types by visiting the Poet Training Tool.
- Ally scans all uploaded files and displays an accessibility score indicator wherever a file is visible to students
- Clicking the indicator opens the feedback panel with a file preview and a list of accessibility issues
- Most issues must be fixed in the file's original software (Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat), not within Ally itself
- For Word documents: run the built-in Accessibility Checker; use proper heading styles and table headers
- For PowerPoints: ensure each slide has a unique, descriptive title; check the presentation title in file metadata
- For PDFs: set a document title and language; add alt text for images; tag the content structure; verify reading order; check color contrast
- OSU's Digital Accessibility Services provides 7 Core Skills guidance to help instructors prioritize remediation work
- Ally automatically generates alternative formats for all uploaded course files, making them available alongside the originals
- Students can access alternative formats without needing to ask the instructor
- Available formats include:
- Tagged PDF
- HTML
- ePub
- Electronic Braille
- Audio
- BeeLine Reader
Alternative formats benefit a wide range of learners: students with disabilities, English language learners, and students with diverse learning preferences
The format that best fits each student's needs is available from a download icon next to the file in CarmenCanvas.