Did you know that Canvas, Northeastern’s learning management system, provides built-in tools to help create accessible courses to support all learners? Canvas offers an embedded accessibility checker, which can be found anywhere that has the Rich Content Editor, including Canvas Announcements, Assignments, Pages, and Quizzes. Canvas’ Built-in Accessibility Checker is an amazing tool to quickly help make your course more accessible for learners with a variety of different disabilities.

Academic Technologies Accessibility Tip: Try checking and fixing the errors on your Canvas Home Page! 

Want to go even further flexing your accessibility muscles? Use Ally Accessibility Report to run a report on your course and schedule a consultation with an Academic Technologies team member to help make changes to your course. This summer is a perfect opportunity to work with Academic Technologies to prepare your course for the fall term. If you would like to learn at your own pace, take the on-demand training Creating Accessible Courses in Canvas.

Megan Reinle is an Instructional Design Consult in Academic Technologies who holds a PhD in Education, specifically in instructional design. “When you make just one change that improves the accessibility of your course, the sky’s the limit,” says Reinle. “You’re now an accessibility advocate and show your students that you’re thinking about them and value their student experience.” Reinle’s doctoral thesis was on the faculty experience using Canvas and Universal Design for Learning principles. She is an accessibility advocate champion.