Step 1: Locate Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide
Step 2: Canvas tutorial

Free to all California community colleges

The Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide for the Canvas LMS platform reviews Canvas pages for potential accessibility errors and prompts content authors with the necessary changes to fix issues.

Faculty will need to contact the local Canvas Admin and DE Coordinator for setup.

DE Coordinator and Canvas Admin: in the link above, scroll down to the section, "How to Request".

Step 1: Locate Instructor Accessibility Guide

Faculty: After working with your local DE Coordinator and Canvas Admin, the Instructor Accessibility Guide will be available near the Save button.

The Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide is a tool that checks the basic accessibility of your page before you save.

Like any tool, the Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide has its limitations. Since it is powered by the WAVE accessibility checker tool (used by accessibility specialists, instructional designers, and faculty support), here are some unique issues that it can identify the following:

Whether or not headings are present and skipped headings (if Heading 2 is skipped)
Empty links
Linked image missing alt text
Course link color contrast
(It is recommended to work with your DE Coordinator and/or Canvas Admin to ensure the standard link colors have enough contrast as this is not something faculty can alter at a global level. This means the tool can help you change the link color one by one, but it's best if the link default color is accessible. Only the Canvas Admin can determine the link color in Canvas.)

Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide anatomy

Break down of:
- Errors: Must be fixed.
- Alerts: Accessibility Checker identifies limitations - needs your human eyes to review!
Each error or alert has its own section that can be expanded via the + button.
Brief error/alert description. For more information select the ? button.
Each square represents an issue that needs to be addressed.
"You-Do-It-Action-Area"
Depending on the error/alert, there will be a guide to assist in applying accessibility changes.
For example, each square will have an image preview and will be highlighted in the textbox editor.
- Examples button provides a refresher on how to approach writing meaningful alt text.
- Select Apply to save your work.
After remediating the page, feel free to select Rescan to double-check your work.

Step 2: Canvas tutorial

Run the Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide. It should appear on the right-hand side of the screen.

Expand any section you would like to begin by selecting the + button.
The number or error results or alters will appear as individual squares. Select one result to begin.
If applicable, a preview of the result will appear and will be highlighted on the Canvas page as a reference.
Provide additional information to create accessible instructional content.
Select Apply.

Continue down each of the sections until all errors are gone.

There are some alerts that, depending on the content, may not require action - feel free to ignore.