Accessibility

Accessible Course Content Checklist

Last modified 9/26/2025

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Check Your Content: The 7 Steps of Accessibility

  • Example of Heading structure with headings 1 through 4.

    Heading Styles

    Use built-in heading styles to designate structure & content organization. Modify them to suit your needs.

    Headings Overview

  • Screenshot of Click here text with a circle and line through it and Illinois State University website text with happy face to the left.

    Descriptive Naming of Links

    Use descriptive titles for hyperlinks to provide added context for navigation.

    Hyperlinks

  • Screenshot of Alt Text box in Microsoft Word

    Alternative Text

    Provide alternative text for images, graphs and charts.

    Writing Alt Text

  • Table with header cells highlighted

    Format Tables with headers

    Ensure all tables have marked header cells (Row, Column or Both)

    Table Help

  • Screenshot of the words: GOOD (white text over black background) and BAD (light green text over a yellow background)

    Text and Contrast

    Check that text and page background display a strong contrast. Do not rely solely on reference to color or shape to describe content.

    Choosing Color

  • Screenshot of bullet and number list icons.

    List Styles

    Use built-in bulleted or numbered list styles to designate list structure. Format and use built-in simple tables with column and row headers.

    List Overview

  • Closed Captioning Symbol (CC)

    Closed Captioning

    Choose videos that have closed captioning or transcripts.

    Captioning Help

Next Steps

  • PowerPoint Logo

    PowerPoint Slides

    Follow all content accessibility guidelines above. In addition, check the Outline View to make sure all text from slides appears in Outline View.

    PowerPoint Accessibility

  • Screenshot of PDF with readable text highlighted.

    Readable Materials (PDF files)

    Can text within your PDF file be selected with a mouse? If so, a text-to-speech reader should be able to read the file. If not, the file will need conversion using programs such as Adobe Acrobat.

    Accessible PDFs

  • 3rd Party Online Materials

    How accessible are the digital materials you want to select to use for your course? Ask about accessibility before deciding on use.

Building an Accessible Course in Canvas

Creating accessible course content in Canvas is not only a legal requirement under various laws and regulations, but it is also a moral obligation to ensure that all learners have an equitable learning experience. Use the Digital Accessibility Canvas Course  as a training tool to help improve your accessibility skills

Learn about Canvas Accessibility


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