UDOIT, or the Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool, is a course accessibility checker integrated within Canvas. Instructors and instructional designers use UDOIT to identify and resolve digital accessibility barriers. This article is the first in a series designed to help empower Canvas users to fix digital accessibility barriers wherever possible. In this series, we will describe a particular barrier, show you how it can affect your students, and then give you resources on how to fix the barrier inside of UDOIT.
Let’s start by answering the question: What is an accessibility barrier? Our partners at the Center for User Experience and McBurney Disability Resource Center define a barrier as “an obstacle that creates disability by preventing independent access to a digital tool or resource.”
UDOIT allows you to scan your entire course and identify barriers. Looking to get started using it on your course? Check out our KB article “Getting Started with UDOIT.”
Why is this important?
As of June 1, 2024, the Department of Justice put out new accessibility requirements for web content and mobile applications. Generally, this means all of our public-facing content, including courses inside of Canvas, have to conform with WCAG 2.2 AA standards. The first deadline for compliance is April 24, 2026.
Barriers fall into three different levels: A, AA, AAA. To achieve the A standard, all barriers under the A level must be corrected. For the AA standard, all A and AA must be corrected. AAA, being this highest level, must have all A, AA, and AAA barriers fixed. These articles will focus on meeting the AA standard.
If you would like more information about these new requirements, please check out one of these two links:
New ADA Title II Rule on Web Accessibility: Fact Sheet Guide
Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments | ADA.gov
Using Color Alone
Using color alone for emphasis is a barrier identified by the WCAG 2.2 A standard. This means that it needs to be corrected in order to comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
Using colors alone to emphasize certain words or phrases in a sentence will not be conveyed to someone that uses a screen reader.
When a screen reader encounters any sort of color in text, it is ignored. This means that the user will not be aware of any changes in the color of the text.
Here is an example of the barrier in action:
We recommend using the UDOIT tool to find and correct this barrier in Canvas courses.
To fix the barrier, you need to make the text bold or italic.
Here is a quick video on how to make this fix within the UDOIT Accessibility Checker Tool:
Once you have made the fix, here is how the screen reader will react with bold text.
Here is how the screen reader will react to italic text.
The videos showing the barrier were created using the NVDA Screen Reader.
In the coming weeks, we will post more articles demonstrating how to address other accessibility barriers using UDOIT. In the meantime, if you have any questions on using UDOIT, check out UDOIT on the KnowledgeBase or feel free to reach out to the DOIT Help Desk.