Overview Video
Digital Accessibility means creating digital content in a way that all students, regardless of ability, can access and interact with. This requirement is mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
All digital instructional content—including materials stored in eCourses, shared through file storage systems, or sent by email—must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA.
Because these guidelines are complex, this guide highlights the major areas that often require remediation in existing documents and provides key considerations for developing or selecting new resources.
Any content in digital format provided to students for instructional purposes must meet WCAG 2.1 standards even if no accommodation letters are active for any of your students. This mandate is proactive in nature and applies to all digital course content.
Content already created and may require remediation to bring it inline with WCAG 2.1 guidelines. It is generally easier to create content in an accessible format from the beginning then to remediate it, especially if it is in PDF Format.
Tools for Identification & Remediation in eCourses
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Canvas Accessibility Checker
- Content built directly in Canvas, i.e Pages, Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Announcements
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Ally Accessibility Checker
- All Content including uploaded files
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Cidilabs Accessibility Checker
- Style Headers/Links
Other Identification & Remediation Tools
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Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Prepare for Accessibility and Guided Action Make Accessible.
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Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker
- Word, PowerPoint, Excel Documents
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MathPix
- For STEM notes with heavy mathematical notation
PVAMU uses Anthology Ally to provide assistance with identification and remediation of inaccessible content already uploaded into eCourses. It should be on the course menu by default. If you do not see it on the course menu, add it to your navigation by following steps outlined in our Guide for adding or removing content in your course.
The Ally Course Accessibility Report
1. Displays the number of each content type in the course. This is total content -- not content that needs remediation.
2. The content with the easiest issues to fix
3. The content with the lowest scores.
Ally breaks items into Severe, Major and Minor categories. It is best to work on the items in order of severity. So start with Item 3 below - Fix low scoring content.
Ally will direct you to remediate content it can fix within it's own interface. For several items you will need to go out to the the program the item was developed in.
Most remediation is done in MS Office programs or Adobe PDF, eCourses (for pages), CidiLabs (headings and links in context) and Canvas Studio (for captions).
Accessing Adobe Acrobat Pro
If you work with PDFs and you don't have original files in Word, PowerPoint or Excel, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (also called Acrobat DC). All employees of PV has access to this software through Adobe.
Step 1: Navigate to the Adobe Acrobat Website
Step 2: Click Sign In
Step 3: Use your @pvamu.edu email address
Step 4: Click Company or School Account
Step 5: Complete additional authentication steps as prompted (not shown)
Step 6: Click on Download Acrobat apps
Step 7: Click on Adobe Acrobat Pro
If it says open as shown below -- it is already installed on the computer. If not click on Get App. You should not need admin credentials to install it on university hardware. It is a large program, it may take several minutes to install.
Setting Acrobat Pro as Default Program Windows 10/11
By default PDFs will open in your browser. If you are remediating many PDFs it may be more efficient for you to set Acrobat Pro as the default program for PDFs.
Step 1: In the search box type Default Apps
Step 2: Click on Default Apps in the menu
Step 3: Under Set a default for a file type or link type type .pdf
Step 4: Click the arrow next to the program to change it.
Step 5: Click on Adobe Acrobat
Step 6: Click Default
Setting Adobe Pro Default Program for PDFs Mac
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