UDOIT Cloud in Canvas

Introduction

Watch UDOIT Cloud 3.0 Overview Video

The Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) will scan your Canvas course content, generate a list of accessibility issues and provide guidance on how to correct them.

UDOIT does not automatically fix accessibility issues. It meant to be used as a guide to help you learn and apply accessibility best practices proactively.

What UDOIT Looks For

UDOIT checks for common accessibility issues, but it's not comprehensive and it's not a certification tool.

In other words, an error-free report in UDOIT does not necessarily mean that your course contains 0 accessibility issues. Likewise, the tool may indicate a possible accessibility issue where one does not exist (false positives).

To learn more about recognizing and removing accessibility barriers, see our guides on basic techniques.

Errors

Links Should Contain Text

Because many users of screen readers (Links to an external site) use links to navigate the page, providing links with no text (or with images that have empty 'alt' attributes and no other readable text) hinders these users.

Insufficient Text Color Contrast With the Background

Text color should be easily viewable and should not be the only indicator of meaning or function. Color balance should have at least a 4.5:1 ratio for small text and 3:1 ratio for large text. Warning: using UDOIT to fix one section of text may invalidate the contrast in nested sections of text that are not the same color.

Avoid Using Color Alone for Emphasis

When emphasizing text, you may use color with sufficient contrast as long as you also apply some other form of emphasis, such as bold or italics. This ensures that screen reader users are aware of the text's importance.

Headings Should Contain Text

Sighted and screen reader (Links to an external site) users depend on headings to organize the content on the page. Headings should not be empty and should represent an accurate outline of the content.

Alternative Text Should Not Be the Image Filename

Alternative Text (Alt Text) is an alternative (non-visual) way to describe the meaning of an image. Please provide a brief description of the image for a screen reader (Links to an external site) user.

Note: It should not be the image file name and should be 125 characters or less.

Learn more at WebAIM.org: Alt Text Accessibility (Links to an external site).

Alternative Text Is More Than the Maximum Allowed Characters

Note: It should not be the image file name and should be 125 characters or less.

Learn more at WebAIM.org: Alt Text Accessibility (Links to an external site).

Alt Text For Images Within Links Should Not Be Empty

Alternative Text should not be empty.

Note: It should not be the image file name and should be 125 characters or less.

Learn more at WebAIM.org: Alt Text Accessibility (Links to an external site).

Images Should Not Have a Placeholder as Alternative Text

Any image that is not used decoratively or which is purely for layout purposes cannot have an 'alt' attribute that consists solely of placeholders. Placeholders include: nbsp ,   , spacer , image , img , and photo .

Learn more at WebAIM.org: Alt Text Accessibility (Links to an external site).

Image Elements Should Have an "alt" Attribute

Note: It should not be the image file name and should be 125 characters or less.

Learn more at WebAIM.org: Alt Text Accessibility (Links to an external site).

Decorative Images Should Have Empty Alternative Text

This image was marked as decorative in the Rich Content Editor, but the ALT attribute contains text. Please remove the alternative text or the decorative marking.

Learn more at WebAIM.org: Alt Text Accessibility (Links to an external site).

No Table Headers Found

Table headers provide a description of the table structure for sighted and screen reader (Links to an external site) users.

No Row or Column Scope Declarations Found in Table Headers

Scope declarations in headers organize and define table data by row/column for sighted and screen reader (Links to an external site) users.

Closed Captions Do Not Match Course Language

While this video has captions, there are no captions available for your course language. While not imperative to fix, if you'd like to you have three options:

Contact the creator of the video and request captions in your course language be added. Create captions yourself using a service like Amara (http://amara.org/). Find a different video that has closed captioning for your course language.

Closed Captions Cannot Be Checked

Videos used on online courses are required to have closed captioning. Unfortunately, some video services do not provide an API for checking captions and will need to be manually verified.

No Closed Captions Found

Captions should be included in the video to provide dialogue to users who are hearing impaired. (Please note that videos that have been removed, deleted, or are Unlisted will also cause this error, and will need to be manually verified.)

Closed Captions Were Auto-Generated

Captions that are machine-generated by a service like YouTube are rarely if ever fully accurate and should not be relied upon for educational use.

Suggestions

Links To Multimedia Require Transcripts: Multimedia objects should be accompanied by a link to a transcript of the content.
Links To Sound Files Need Transcripts: Links to a sound file should be followed by a link to a transcript of the file.
Link Has Nondescript Text: Links should be descriptive of the content they're linking to, such as 'Class Schedule' rather than 'schedule.html' or 'click here'.
Content Length Should Not Exceed 3000 Words: For content longer than 3000 words, consider splitting it up into multiple documents. This makes it easier for students to process and retain the information.
Input Images Should Have an "alt" Attribute: Every form image button which has text within the image (say, a picture of the word 'Search' in a special font), should have the same text within the 'alt' attribute.
Headings Should Be Used in Content: If appropriate, add headings to the page to organize the content for sighted and screen reader (Links to an external site) users. The headings should represent an accurate outline of the content.
Avoid Using Styles for Document Structure: Bold and Italics are used to emphasize text, whereas headings are used to define the structure of the document. Headings like h1-h6 are extremely useful for non-sighted users to navigate the structure of the page, and formatting a paragraph to just be big or bold, while it might visually look like a heading, does not make it one.