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From Guidelines to Practice: Making Learning More Accessible in Canvas Through Templating
These days we hear a lot about personalizing the learning experience to help provide more agency for our learners. This speaks to me because I value the human connections I create in my role. I serve as one of the Technology Instructional Specialists for our small, rural district in Indiana. My role supports K12 teachers…
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Dyslexia-friendly font: Offering more accessibility options to our users
Hi, I'm Ed Schiebel, guest blog poster and Senior Software Engineer with Instructure, where I spend my days working on Canvas. Here at Instructure we periodically have a Hackweek, where engineers get to work on features we don't have time to tinker with during the normal course of business. Sometimes hackweek ideas come…
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Fresh Look, Same Mission: Instructure's Updated Accessibility Toolkit
We’re excited to announce a refresh of one of your favorite community resources - the Accessibility Toolkit! Whether you’re just getting started or looking to level up your practice, this updated version is designed to save you time, spark new ideas, and make your day-to-day work a little easier. What’s New Streamlined…
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Recent Accessibility-Related UI Changes
Below is a list of recent accessibility-focused UI updates. These changes help improve usability, navigation, and screen reader support across the platform. We’ll keep adding more as we continue this work. Page / Component Description Accessibility Checker trayAdded callback to native mobileAccount - Edit ProfileEnabling…
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Accessibility Features in Canvas LMS and Studio for Teachers - Video
Hi all, The Instructure team has made a video overview of Canvas and Studio features that help instructors and course designers to foster a more accessible digital learning environment. We have included the link to the video as well as the embed codes below in the interest of sharing this resource. Thank you for your…
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Building Inclusive Products: Our Internal Accessibility Engineering Process
Internal Accessibility Engineering Process Here at Instructure, we believe that accessibility isn't just a feature—it's a foundational part of how we build. Creating accessible experiences is a cross-functional effort that starts from the earliest design phases and continues through development, testing, and beyond. Here’s…
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Design with Accessibility First: Integrating WCAG Compliance From the Start
In today's digital age, creating accessible learning experiences is not just a best practice, it's a necessity. As Product Designers, we have a responsibility to ensure that our content and user experience is usable by everyone, regardless of their abilities. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by approaching…
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Resource: Alt Text Flow Chart
Alt text doesn’t have to be confusing. Whether you’re unsure when it’s needed or how to write it, we’ve got you covered. We just published a brand-new Knowledge Base article that breaks it all down: * When you should (and shouldn’t) use alt text * What makes alt text effective * A simple flow chart to guide your…
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Accessibility Takes a Village: How Cidi Labs Tools Help Everyone Play a Part
With an increased sense of urgency to provide accessible learning experiences for all students, the accessibility conversation is shifting from a focus on all the reasons that it’s important to all the ways that we can make the important work of accessibility more achievable. At Cidi Labs, a provider of clever, affordable…
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New Course Announcement: Fundamentals of Accessible Digital Content in Canvas
Fundamentals of Accessible Digital Content in Canvas Enhance the inclusivity of your Canvas courses! The Instructure Services team is excited to announce the launch of a new free course, available in all tiers of the On-Demand Training Portal (including the free tier) starting Monday, April 14, 2025. This course is…
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Creating Accessible Videos and Multimedia
Have You Ever Watched a Video on Mute? Ever tried watching a video in a noisy coffee shop without sound? You probably turned on captions. Now imagine if captions weren’t an option—how much would you miss? For millions of students, accessibility features like captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions aren’t just…
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Designing Accessible Documents and Presentations: Making Content Work for Everyone
Imagine opening a document filled with tiny text, fuzzy images, and a jumble of unstructured content with no rhyme or reason. Now, try navigating that document without a mouse, without a keyboard shortcut, or without being able to see it at all. For millions of individuals with disabilities, these aren’t just minor…
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Why Accessibility Matters in Education
Breaking Barriers: The Role of Accessibility in Education By @JenniferAshley and @reka.pali Have you ever tried to watch a movie in another language without subtitles? Or attempted to follow a TV show with the volume muted and no captions? Imagine trying to read a textbook with text that is blurred or pages that are blank.…
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Accessibility Training for Post-Secondary Faculty
How do universities rise to the challenge of making their courses accessible? This charge requires an ecosystem of support and institutional resources: course reviews, document remediation, captioning, individual accommodations, assistive technology support, and more. One of the key pillars in this ecosystem is education –…
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Deque axe-con 2025 (Feb 25th-27th)
Hello everyone, I wanted to share a great opportunity that's happening from February 25th-27th, 2025. Deque is hosting their annual axe-con Accessibility Conference and registration is completely free. All of the sessions will be recorded, so even if you're unable to attend live, you can still register and access all of…