Making Classes Accessible to All Students

by | Sep 19, 2020 | Accessibility, Canvas, Course Design, Home

Updated Feb. 5, 2025

Good course design that is accessible creates a learning environment that is usable in an equitable way for all students, including students with disabilities. It’s also a federal regulation! On April 24, 2024, the Department of Justice published a final rule updating the regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This rule emphasizes the need for web content to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. The rule applies to online course content (including Canvas and all posted materials) created or managed by university staff, faculty, and students working at Western. See more about the Final Rule on Web Accessibility on the Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance site and on the WWU Web Communication Technologies (WebTech) page, Preparing sites for the Title II rule on Web Accessibility.

Explore the following considerations and resources to learn more about setting-up your course to address different learning abilities and learning needs that your students may have. This can be overwhelming; start small, but start with the next thing you edit or create.

For a useful overview for what you can do to ensure your digital content is accessible, watch this recorded session. In this video, AJ Barse, WWU Instructional Designer, and Justina Brown, Sr. Instructional Designer, share what is entailed in the new federal digital content accessibility mandate prior to the early 2026 effective date. They also cover accessibility basics to help you ensure your digital content is ready. 

Recording Link: Countdown to Meeting New Federal Digital Accessibility Rules (33 min)
Recording Slides: The Final Countdown…

Explore the following considerations and resources to learn more about setting-up your course to address different learning abilities and learning needs that your students may have. This can be overwhelming; start small, but start with the next thing you edit or create.

Training

Key Considerations

  • Present expectations and course materials on Canvas with the utmost clarity. (e.g., participation, technology, readings, assignments, activities, grades, etc.)
  • Design digital content accessibly. (e.g., PowerPoint, Word Docs, PDFs)
    • Links: Make sure link titles have meaningful names instead of “click here.”
    • Lists: Use the formatting tool for bullets and numbering; do not manually enter symbols.
    • Alt Text/Images: Provide short meaningful alt text or mark images as decorative (skipped by screen readers).
    • Tables: Use row/column headers in tables that organize data; avoid empty, merged cells or for formatting a page.
    • Color: Be sure to have high contrast between text and background colors; avoid using color to convey meaning.
    • Headings: Use headings (H1, H2, etc.) to convey a mental map of your document, instead of font size and styles
  • Use built-in accessibility checkers in Canvas.
  • Ensure PDFs are text-selectable and able to be read by a screen reader.
  • Build accessible features into live and recorded video.
    • Use Panopto to host videos since they are automatically captioned.
    • Add audio descriptions to describe non-audio content in videos (available in Panopto).
    • Enable live annotation and/or transcript during web conferencing meetings or classes (Zoom, Teams).
  • Use the WWU Resources below.

WWU Resources

Key Resources

Originally contributed to the TLCo-op by Alina Holmes, Graduate Research Assistant of the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment, 2020.