Northwestern Increased Canvas Accessibility by 27 Percent—Help Us Increase the Number

During fall 2023, Northwestern instructors and staff reduced the overall number of accessibility errors in Canvas by 27 percent. Many of the updated courses and instructors responsible for the increased accessibility can be found on the Mission: Accessible Wall of Fame. Students seeking courses with accessible sites can also explore the Accessible Courses page on the AccessibleNU site. Things are off to a great start, and there is more progress to make! 

When the Canvas Accessibility Project launched in February 2023, it began with collaboration in mind. Through a partnership between Northwestern IT Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT), the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance, and AccessibleNU—we committed to guiding instructors who need assistance bringing their learning materials and course sites into compliance with Northwestern’s digital accessibility policy and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Combined efforts, new technology, and instructors willing to jump into building inclusive digital learning environments have led to significant gains.

Use Pope Tech on Canvas Course Sites

Many of the gains in Northwestern’s Canvas course site accessibility can be attributed to the ease of use of the Pope Tech Accessibility Guide, which can be found on any editable course page in Canvas, using the button that bears the Pope Tech logo next to the Save button.

Judy Franks, clinical professor of integrated marketing communications in Medill, praised Pope Tech’s effectiveness in remediating errors in her course sites, “As you build content in Canvas, you hit the Pope Tech accessibility check before you save the page and see how you did. It's easy to correct everything it finds in a matter of minutes. And the learning you get will help you as you build other content."

Earn a Spot on the Wall of Fame

Northwestern’s Mission: Accessible Wall of Fame highlights courses in which the Canvas sites have been updated to meet core digital accessibility criteria. There are two ways to earn recognition:

1. Register for the Mission: Accessible Challenge. Once registered, instructors will receive regular check-ins from the Canvas Accessibility Project team to help track progress in learning and applying new skills and to assist when needed.
2. Instructors can also use the Pope Tech Accessibility report, found on the in-course navigation menu of all Northwestern Canvas courses, to self-direct accessibility improvements to a course. Once the course registers zero accessibility errors, send an email to canvas@northwestern.edu. The project team will verify the course’s accessibility and add it to the Wall of Fame.

Instructors with courses already on the Wall of Fame are encouraged to update others and submit those for recognition as well.

Other Ways to Get Started

• Sign up for a consultation with a member of the Canvas Accessibility Project team.
• Register for an accessibility workshop. The project team has created several workshop offerings, including those focused on using assistive technology to navigate a course site and how to implement it.

Help Us Improve Beyond 27 Percent this Spring

The community of instructors and staff at Northwestern making gains towards the digital accessibility of course materials continues to grow. Nowhere is this community more visible and connected than at TEACHx, the annual conference to showcase innovative approaches to teaching and learning with technology. This year’s conference will feature a workshop by Luis Perez, disability and digital inclusion lead for CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology), who will discuss best practices for the creation, delivery, and use of high-quality, accessible educational materials and technologies through the lens of his own lived experience as a person with a disability and a multilingual learner.

Every step forward in accessibility improves the learning outcomes for all Northwestern students. After completing the Mission: Accessible challenge, Noelle Sullivan, associate director and professor of instruction for the Program in Global Health Studies, said, “I do hope more faculty take this seriously. If we can allow our students to focus more on learning because the barriers they usually face are out of the way, we’re far more likely to set the tone that we care about how they learn, and we’ll get the most out of them as a result.”

Please join the Canvas Accessibility Project team in this vital work. With a small investment of time, the teaching and learning community at Northwestern can make all course sites accessible and inclusive for every student at the University.