{"id":7292,"date":"2025-11-03T08:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/?p=7292"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:38:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:38:53","slug":"quick-wins-for-accessibility-how-to-boost-your-canvas-score-to-90-by-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/2025\/11\/03\/quick-wins-for-accessibility-how-to-boost-your-canvas-score-to-90-by-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Wins for Accessibility: How to Boost Your Canvas Score to 90% by December"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we prepare for the upcoming Title II deadline in April 2026, the Instructional Deans Council has set a clear goal: all Spring 2026 courses should achieve a\u202f<strong>Canvas Accessibility Report score of 90% or higher by December 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re wondering where to start, you&#8217;re not alone. Fortunately, there are several straightforward steps you can take right now to make meaningful progress. Here are five high-impact strategies\u2014\u201ceasy wins\u201d\u2014to help you quickly improve your accessibility score:<\/p>\n<h2>1. Clean Up Unused Files with TidyUp<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/tidyup\/\">Use the\u202fTidyUp tool<\/a>\u202fto remove outdated or unused files from your course. Eliminating files you no longer use, such as, old syllabi, PowerPoints, and announcements can significantly boost your score. If the content will not be available to your current students, it shouldn\u2019t be in your course.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Address Common Issues in the Accessibility Report<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jccc.yuja.com\/V\/Video?v=12580007&amp;node=54945877&amp;a=122531924\">The\u202fAlly Accessibility Report<\/a>\u202fhighlights issues that can often be resolved directly within Canvas. Focus on fixing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Images without alt text (use the\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/community.anthology.com\/home\/blogs\/alt-text-or-it-didnt-happen-allys-alt-text-assistant-just-got-a-whole-lot-smarter-2025-08-08\">Ally Alt Text Assistant\u202f<\/a>for support)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/scribehow.com\/viewer\/Use_Appropriate_Color_Contrast_using_the_Ally_Accessibility_Report__vBAHgOoIS0SQgoeYHHD1iw?referrer=knowledge-page\">Text with insufficient contrast<\/a> in HTML\/Canvas Text Editor Content<\/li>\n<li>Tables missing headers in HTML\/Canvas Text Editor Content<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Ally\/Ally_for_LMS\/Instructor\/View_File_Accessibility\/PDF_Remediation_Options\">Scanned documents without OCR<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Ally\/Ally_for_LMS\/Instructor\/Improve_Accessibility\/Fix_Broken_Links\">Broken links in HTML\/Canvas Text Editor<\/a> Content<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Ally\/Ally_for_LMS\/Instructor\/View_File_Accessibility\/PDF_Remediation_Options\">PDFs missing a language setting or title<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These fixes are quick and impactful.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Replace PDFs with Original Word or PowerPoint Files<\/h2>\n<p>Whenever possible, upload the original\u202fWord or PowerPoint\u202fversions of your documents instead of PDFs. These formats are easier to edit for accessibility, and students can still download PDFs using <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Ally\/Ally_for_LMS\/Student\/Alternative_Formats\">Ally\u2019s alternative formats feature<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to delete the old PDFs to improve your score.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Use Tools to Streamline Alt Text Creation<\/h2>\n<p>Leverage tools like the\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/community.anthology.com\/home\/blogs\/alt-text-or-it-didnt-happen-allys-alt-text-assistant-just-got-a-whole-lot-smarter-2025-08-08\">Ally Alt Text Assistant<\/a>\u202for the\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/asuo-ai-labs.streamlit.app\/Image_Accessibility\">ASU Image Accessibility Creator<\/a>\u202fto jumpstart your alt text writing. These tools provide a solid foundation, which you can then tailor to your instructional context.<\/p>\n<h2>5. Add Alt Text to Word and PowerPoint Files<\/h2>\n<p>Open the Ally Accessibility Report for your document to identify images in your file that are missing alt text. Download the file, make edits on your computer, and re-upload the improved version directly into Canvas where prompted. Microsoft also provides <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office\/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25\">guidance on improving the accessibility of your presentations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Note, Ally&#8217;s Accessibility Report is more robust than Microsoft&#8217;s Accessibility Assistant. Follow the guidance provided by Ally when the two checkers disagree.<\/p>\n<h2>Need Help? We&#8217;re Here for You.<\/h2>\n<p>The\u202fEd Tech Center\u202fis ready to support you in making your course content accessible. Whether you have questions or want hands-on assistance, don\u2019t hesitate to reach out:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udccd LIB 375<br \/>\n\ud83d\udce7 edtech@jccc.edu<br \/>\n\ud83d\udcde 913-469-3842<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/a11y\/training\/\">Request help remediating your course<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/a11y\/training\/\">JCCC Accessibility Training Resources<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s work together to ensure all students have equitable access to learning materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\"><p>As we prepare for the upcoming Title II deadline in April 2026, the Instructional Deans Council has set a clear&hellip;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/2025\/11\/03\/quick-wins-for-accessibility-how-to-boost-your-canvas-score-to-90-by-december\/\" class=\"more-link\">\n\t\tContinue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Quick Wins for Accessibility: How to Boost Your Canvas Score to 90% by December&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,15,39,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a11y","category-canvas","category-edtech","category-how-to-guides","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6byRN-1TC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7292"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7301,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7292\/revisions\/7301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}