Quick Start Guide to Accessible Course Materials

Ready to take Seven Accessible Canvas Practices to the next level? Ensure your course materials are accessible and usable with these simple Quality Matters (QM)-inspired best practices.

Understand Automation

Accessibility Checkers

Automated accessibility checkers identify and resolve common issues, but they don't catch everything. Manual review and adjustments are necessary. Examples include:

Microsoft (MS) Accessibility Checker
Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Checker
UDOIT (Canvas): Review Course Files

AI Assistance

AI tools can support accessibility improvement, but you remain the expert. Always manually review for accuracy and completeness. Examples include:

Auto-generated closed captions in Canvas Studio
Generated alt text in Microsoft
Auto-tagging in Adobe Acrobat

Improve Word Docs

Accessibility Checker in Word

Use Review Ribbon > Check Accessibility to identify and resolve missing alt text, tables formatting, and text contrast issues.

Screenshot of Microsoft's ribbon with focus on Check Accessibility in the Review tab. — *Classic ribbon in MS Word on the Web.*

Make Quick Manual Adjustments

Add a document title using the desktop app.
- For Windows, go to File > Info. Locate "Title" under Properties.
- For MacOS, go to File > Properties > Summary.
Format lists, write descriptive links, and ensure headings are in logical order.

Tip: Use styles, not just fonts

Use heading styles, not just fonts, to structure your document for accessibility.

Fonts labeled with "(Headings)" change appearance, but don’t apply accessible structure.
Use the Styles panel (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2) to apply correct formatting.
You can customize styles to match your preferred font and size.

Resource

For step-by-step guidance with screenshots, check out Microsoft's Make your Word documents accessible to everyone with Accessibility Assistant.

Improve PPT Slides

Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint

Use Review > Check Accessibility to identify and resolve missing alt text, slide titles, and reading order issues.

Make Quick Manual Adjustments

Add a document title using the desktop app.
- For Windows, go to File > Info. Locate "Title" under Properties.
- For MacOS, go to File > Properties > Summary.
Format lists, write descriptive links, and add closed captions for embedded videos.

Special Notes

PowerPoint offers unique opportunities and challenges:

Check color contrast between separate layers since the automated checker cannot discern between layers. Examples:
- Separate layers: Text in a text box positioned over a shape element or image.
- Same layer: Text inserted directly in the shape element.
Ensure color alone is not used to convey meaning by using PowerPoint's desktop app:
- Review > Check Accessibility > Accessibility tab > Inspect without Color.
- If your charts rely on color to convey information (e.g., green: Yes, and red: No), add data labels.
  - Create a chart using Insert > Chart
  - Right click on the chart and select Add Data Labels.
  - Right click on the chart again to select options to Format Data Labels to meet your needs.

Tip: Use built-in layouts

Built-in slide layouts include titles and a logical reading order.

Layouts organize content consistently and support proper structure.
If you add text boxes, shapes, or other elements, review the reading order and make adjustments.
The ISU Course Template includes an accessible PowerPoint template and is available in Files.

Resource

For guidance on PowerPoint using Windows, MacOS, or Web, check out Microsoft's Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities.

Create Accessible PDFs

Original Formats

Whenever possible, share Word or PowerPoint files, not PDF files. Word and PowerPoint files are easier to update and offer better usability features, including font scaling and "reflow" of layout for mobile readability.

Export PDFs

If a PDF is required, open the document or slides and use Save As, Export, or Create PDF, not Print to PDF, to preserve accessibility from the source file. Options may be vary between systems (Windows, MacOS, Web).

If available, select Best for electronic distribution or Document structure tags for accessibility to preserve accessibility efforts from the source file.
If Adobe Acrobat is installed and signed in with an iastate account, there may be an option to Save as Adobe PDF. If so, select it, then Options (next to Save), and ensure Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF is checked.

Screenshot of Adobe PDFMaker. PDF Options are checked for enable accessibility in addition to other features. — *When Acrobat is installed, Word allows saving as an Adobe PDF. In addition to accessibility, features include reflow of text and usable bookmarks.*

Best practices

Offer the original source file or consider alternatives to PDFs.
Run the Accessibility Checker in Adobe Acrobat and resolve recommended actions.
- Read the Fix Inaccessible PDFs section on reviewing the accessibility checker and report.

Tip: Keep slides in PowerPoint

Are you converting your slides into PDFs to remove speaker notes? There's no need to do so in PowerPoint on Windows:

Create a copy of your slides to avoid removing notes from the original.
Go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document.
Ensure "Presentation Notes" is checked and select Inspect.
After the scan completes, select Remove all next to "Presentation Notes."

Resource

For guidance on exporting to PDFs in Microsoft apps using Windows, MacOS, or Web, check out Microsoft Support: Create accessible PDFs.

Fix Inaccessible PDFs

When working with existing PDFs, especially those not created from accessible source files, remediation can be complex and often require manual adjustments. This guidance applies to PDFs created digitally. Read the Find PDF Alternatives section for scanned documents.

Install Adobe Acrobat

To remediate PDFs, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat installed on a desktop computer:

Download and install Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Creative Cloud to access Acrobat. For ISU-provided computers, access apps through these options:
- - Windows: Software Center
  - MacOS: Self Service
Once installed, sign into Adobe using your iastate account to access Pro features.

What are tags?

Tags are behind-the-scenes labels that define the structure of a PDF, such as headings, paragraph, lists, cells of tables, etc. Tags are organized into a "tag tree" which acts as a blueprint for how the document is read.

Accessibility Checker

Start with automated tools to identify and address basic accessibility issues in Adobe Acrobat, such as untagged PDFs:

In All Tools, select Prepare for accessibility.
Select Check for accessibility to generate a report of issues and suggested fixes.
Right-clicking some errors, such as Document > Tagged PDF - Failed, will offer the menu option Fix to help resolve issues.
Tools in the "Prepare for accessibility" panel can also assist in resolving issues:
1. Select Fix reading order to visually inspect and adjust the reading order.
2. Select Add alternate text to manually add descriptions to images, or mark as artifacts if they are decorative.

Screenshot of Prepare for Accessibility tool selected within All Tools. — *"Prepare for accessibility" may not appear at first glance under All Tools. Select "View more" and drag to reorder it higher on the list.*

Make Manual Adjustments

Even after auto-tagging, many PDFs require manual fixes that demand technical knowledge and careful attention:

Select Open accessibility report to obtain a detailed report with description and status of the document.
- Manually fix any failed statuses and review issues that require manual checks.
Ensure tags are correctly applied and nested (e.g., headings, lists, tables).
- Open the Tags side panel to ensure content is correctly labeled (e.g., headings as <H1>, paragraphs as <P>).
- Tags can be expanded in the list to review nesting.
- Tab through the tag list to ensure content is in logical order.

Resource

For step-by-step guidance on Adobe Acrobat's accessibility tools, check out Acrobat Pro: Create and verify PDF accessibility.

Find PDF Alternatives

Published material

If the PDF is an academic article or chapter, consider using Parks Library services:

Search the library’s database for online access to articles or books and provide the “permalink” to students.
Consider using Course Reserves in Canvas to source materials through the library.
- The library manages the courses materials and typically offers accessible formats. They also manage the copyright fees and issues.
- If the material is older (scanned as an image), they may be able to source a digitized version.

Document without original source

If you don’t have the original file, but it was created digitally:

Copy and paste the content into a Canvas page.
- Refer to the Seven Accessible Canvas Practices to format headings, lists, alt text, etc.
- Cite the source on the page.
Convert a PDF Document to a Canvas Page in UDOIT and fix any formatting issues that carry over.
- Cite the source on the page.
Convert the PDF to Word using Adobe Acrobat, then run the Accessibility Checker to fix issues. Manually review to ensure conversation worked.