BY BEA JIMENEZ
Per the updated Digital Accessibility Policy, Northwestern requires that instructors make every effort to ensure that digital course materials can be used by all students. Being proactive about creating accessible course materials will save you time in the long run as you will not have to update your course mid-quarter in response to a student’s request for accommodation.
To learn how to make your specific Canvas courses as accessible as possible, Teaching & Learning Technologies recommends using the Universal Design Online Inspection Tool, or UDOIT. Once enabled, the tool will scan a course, generate a report, and provide a tool to address the most common accessibility issues.
UDOIT checks the following areas of a Canvas course:
- Announcements
- Assignments
- Discussions
- Files (i.e., .html files)
- Pages
- Syllabus
- Module URLs
How to Enable UDOIT for Your Course
Steps to install UDOIT:
- Go to your Canvas course site
- Click on the tab for NU Learning Apps in the course navigation menu
- Scroll down the page to locate the option for UDOIT and click the button to Install Now
![Installing UDOIT]()
- Add the name UDOIT in the option to Create a New Module and click the green Add Link button
![UDOIT setup]()
- Select the content you would like to scan and click Run scanner
![Using UDOIT]()
Do not navigate away from the page while the scan is working. Once the tool is done scanning the course, a report will appear on the page. The Report Summary will list any errors and suggestions to resolve them. Your first report will most likely show a large number of errors. This is normal for an initial report.
Addressing Common Errors Found by UDOIT
As you continue to scroll through the report, note that any time you see a + sign next to an area of the report, you can click on it and see the specific error or suggestion that the tool found. The expanded report gives more information:
- The specific type of error found on that course page and links to more information about that type of error and how it may affect learners.
- The option to select “View the Source of this Issue” at any time to see the specific area of the page that the tool found an error. Open up this link in a new tab or window.
- The option to select U FIX IT! to fix the error.
By addressing the most common errors in your course, the number reduces quickly. We recommend you pick one category at a time and fix all the issues in that category. For example, start by adding alt text to any images that come up in the report. Then, focus on making sure all linked text is descriptive.
What the Scan Does Not Cover
Please note that some items cannot be examined by UDOIT. These include external documents and some videos/audio files for captioning/transcripts. UDOIT will list these items in its report and ask you to confirm that the item is accessible (e.g. a PDF has optical Character Recognition-OCR and videos have been accurately captioned).
Questions about UDOIT? Email canvas@northwestern.edu for more information.