nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Accommodation Help

cschuttler

I’m writing to ask whether there’s a way to enable text-to-speech for quizzes to meet IEP/504 requirements. Many of our special education students are joining general education classes for the first time, and for some, the accommodation is not about comprehension but about demonstrating what they learned. In our ASYNC setting, students may complete self-graded work while either in the building or remote, so having text-to-speech available when needed is important.

Not every student will require this feature, but we should be able to include it for those who do. Could you let me know whether this is possible and, if so, any steps or settings needed to enable it for specific students?

I appreciate your help and guidance on this.

Find more posts tagged with

Student

Instructor

Professional Learning Services

Accepted answers

Chris

Hi @cschuttler,

As far as I know, both classic quizzes and new quizzes are compatible with popular screen readers for both Windows and Mac. I think a majority of users with a requirement for text to speech will have screen reader software on their machines (either something they purchased or something provided by the school). I'm sure that's not universally true though, so I'm wondering if you're asking about having something like the Immersive Reader available directly from quizzes within Canvas?

-Chris

dbrace

Hi @cschuttler,

At my institution (which is a community college so it may or may not relate to your situation), the first considerations for text-to-speech for quizzes, tests, or exams are:

is the student using a device managed by the institution or a personal device (BYOD or "bring your own device" is common in some K-12 areas)
whether or not a virtual proctoring solution is going to be required (something typically decided by an individual teacher) and can a teacher disable it or create an alternative for individual situations
if the assessment is going to be in Canvas or a third-party resource
what third-party resources does the institution subscribe to for text-to-speech (and, if applicable, can it be installed on personal device)

After you have the answers to those questions, how to implement text-to-speech could vary:

a regular web browser
what is built into an operating system
a third-party application or web browser (some are free and some have costs associated with them, some of them are not compatible with virtual proctoring solutions)

If you had not already thought about what I mentioned, I hope what I provided helped. Others in the Community may have more general or specific feedback to offer.

-Doug

JulieEller

Hi @cschuttler,

I was going to say something similar to Chris above. I'll add that at my institution we recommend NVDA as a free option and purchase Read&Write. Both of these work smoothly throughout Canvas and are compatible with our proctoring software, Respondus.

Julie

dbrace

Hi @cschuttler,

In my experience, NVDA will work.

I would recommend that you try some sample quizzes.

-Doug

All comments

Chris

Hi @cschuttler,

-Chris

dbrace

Hi @cschuttler,

At my institution (which is a community college so it may or may not relate to your situation), the first considerations for text-to-speech for quizzes, tests, or exams are:

is the student using a device managed by the institution or a personal device (BYOD or "bring your own device" is common in some K-12 areas)
whether or not a virtual proctoring solution is going to be required (something typically decided by an individual teacher) and can a teacher disable it or create an alternative for individual situations
if the assessment is going to be in Canvas or a third-party resource
what third-party resources does the institution subscribe to for text-to-speech (and, if applicable, can it be installed on personal device)

After you have the answers to those questions, how to implement text-to-speech could vary:

a regular web browser
what is built into an operating system
a third-party application or web browser (some are free and some have costs associated with them, some of them are not compatible with virtual proctoring solutions)

If you had not already thought about what I mentioned, I hope what I provided helped. Others in the Community may have more general or specific feedback to offer.

-Doug

JulieEller

Hi @cschuttler,

Julie

dbrace

Along with what is built into operating systems and web browser, those are what my institution uses.

-Doug

cschuttler

Does the NVDA work in the Quiz format?

dbrace

Hi @cschuttler,

In my experience, NVDA will work.

I would recommend that you try some sample quizzes.

-Doug

cschuttler

Yes, it's for my (science) students who need the accommodations. It would be helpful if there were a way to turn that feature on or off in quizzes for students who need it.

cschuttler

I believe most of these are the district's property. I've noticed that in some districts, students' internet-connected computers are also subject to blocks and limitations.

cschuttler

Thank you! I am going to pass this on to the district — maybe they can turn on for certain students when reading comprehension is not the purpose.

Unanswered Questions

New Quizzes images not visible for most students — re-upload didn't fix it (May 2026 incident context)
Hi everyone, I'm an ed-tech administrator at a Brazilian higher education institution (SENAI CIMATEC) and I'm trying to understand a persistent image visibility issue we experienced during a large-scale exam on May 15, 2026. Here's the full picture: What happened: We applied a quiz via New Quizzes to the entire institution…
Bulk aligning outcomes to New Quiz Questions at the Quiz level
Does anyone have suggestions for bulk aligning questions at the quiz level, not the item bank level? I don't know much about API keys, but would one of these work for a bulk alignment? We have a school that is preparing for accreditation next year and they must get their quiz questions aligned to outcomes. We know they…
Why aren't question banks and quizzes showing up in course import tool?
The most recent quizzes and question banks (including renames) are not showing up as options in the Course Import Tool. As I was creating a new quiz in one course (Classic), I went to add the questions from the Question Bank, but what I needed wasn't there. I went back to the other course to make sure everything was…
When the LMS Goes Dark: Rethinking Course Backups and Student Access
In the wake of the recent Canvas security incident, many instructors are rethinking how they protect their course materials and ensure continuity for students if the LMS becomes unavailable. A common question we’re hearing is how to effectively back up courses “just in case,” especially with an eye toward re‑distributing…
Gradebook Color Status for Incomplete 2-Part Discussions (Discussion Checking-point)
Hi all, Quick question about the Gradebook color status for a 2-part checkpoint discussion. If a student completes the first due date (initial post) but does not complete the required replies by the second due date, is there any way for Canvas to automatically show a color (e.g., missing/late) instead of staying as…