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Canvas Accessibility

Canvas Accessibility
Quick Start Guide

Use Canvas features and tools to increase the accessibility of your content and work to ensure an inclusive and equitable experience for all learners.

Best practices to maximize Canvas accessibility:

Use templates

If your institution provides Canvas course templates that have been designed for accessibility, use them as your starting point.

Write descriptive linked text

Use linked text not bare URLs. Write a description of the link destination, highlight the relevant text, and use the Links button to add a link.

Use tools for structure

Use built-in tools for headings, lists, and tables.

Canvas Rich Content Editor text blocks menu
Canvas Rich Content Editor Lists menu
Canvas Rich Content Editor Table menu

Include alternative text

Add descriptions to the Alternative Text field of images that present information.


Mark decorative images using the Decorative Image checkbox.

Caption and transcribe media

Ensure videos have accurate closed captions and include transcripts of audio recordings.

Use the Accessibility Checker

Use the Accessibility Checker to flag accessibility issues.

Moving forward…

Focus on creation and revision, not remediation. The next time you create a page or update an existing one, use the practices in this guide. Don’t focus on going back and fixing every page you have. Focus on making your new content more inclusive and accessible.

Move to the next page for step-by-step guides to making accessible Canvas content.

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License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning Copyright © 2025 by Briana Fraser, Luke McKnight, Cheryl Colan, and Max O'Neil is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.