Introducing the UDOIT Accessibility Checker for Canvas

April 21, 2017

By Michelle Tuten, Coor. of Accessibility and UDL

While the migration from Blackboard to Canvas is picking up steam, I have some exciting news! In a previous post, I discussed how Canvas is an improvement in accessibility and how it is now our turn to step up our accessibility game when designing courses. Today, I’m happy to introduce you to a built-in, automated, accessibility checker for Canvas called the Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool or UDOIT (pronounced “You do it”)!

UDOIT, which was developed by the University of Central Florida, allows you to scan the following portions of a Canvas course for accessibility issues:

• Announcements
• Assignments
• Discussions
• Files (i.e., .html files)
• Pages
• Syllabus
• Module URLs

It also allows you to fix some issues from within the generated report via the “U Fix It!” buttons, and allows you to easily locate the issues that need to be addressed manually. All identified issues are given brief, detailed information about what the errors are and how to fix them, so repairing issues and learning why they are issues should not be too difficult. However, CCIT and Clemson Online are still here to help, if you do need assistance.

Here is UCF’s video introduction and demonstration of UDOIT.

Those who have been piloting this tool have fallen in love with it, and are excited for the faculty and other course developers who can now use UDOIT too.

While it is a rather straightforward tool to use, if you do find yourself struggling to use UDOIT or think UDOIT may be identifying some false positives, consider checking out our UDOIT for Canvas User Guide and/or seeking assistance from CCIT or Clemson Online.

Notes:

• Currently, if you try to use this tool off-campus, you will need to connect to Clemson via the VPN client, Cisco AnyConnect, and the two-factor authentication program, Duo before you can use UDOIT.
• If you are not part of Clemson University and would like to take advantage of this guide, the UDOIT User Guide is available in Canvas Commons under a BY-NC-SA Creative Commons license.