A printable PDF of this article is available at the bottom of the page.


UDOIT (Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool) scans your course for accessibility issues and assists you in correcting these issues generally within the UDOIT Cloud.

  • UDOIT Cloud is automatically enabled in all Canvas courses and appears in the Course Navigation. 
    1. The UDOIT Cloud tool automatically updates.
    2. Only instructors and staff can see the UDOIT Cloud tool, not students.
  • When you click on the UDOIT Cloud in the course menu, you may be asked to authorize it. This should only need to be done once.
  • Once authorized UDOIT will show the Welcome screen and automatically scan the course. The scan may take 1-2 minutes based on course content. 

 

  • The Welcome screen provides an overview of the tool including:
    1. Overview Video
    2. UDOIT user guide
    3. What does UDOIT look for?
      • Click on the arrow to view the various errors and suggestions
        • Provides information as well as possible links for additional information
      • To view the welcome screen at any time, click the three dots at the top of the dash, then About


  • Once the scan is complete, click on Continue to see the results of the course scan.
    1. This displays the main UDOIT dashboard.
    2. The top 3 errors and top 3 suggestions are displayed
    3. Ways to improve accessibility in the course
      • Start with the first error, click arrow on the right to make corrections. (1 above)
      • Follow the suggestions of Ways to Get Started on the upper right. (2 above)
        • Easiest to fix: i.e. alt text, contrast issues
        • Errors only: most important to update
          1. The difference between errors and suggestions is the suggestions may be content specific and may take more time to update.
        • All open issues: 
          1. Lists EVERYTHING
          2. Can be overwhelming
        • By issue type: 
          1. Specific issues
          2. Captioning
          3. Alt text
        • By content type: 
          1. Announcements
          2. Pages
          3. Quizzes
          4. Syllabus
          5. By using this filter, an instructor can focus on the most relevant student areas.,
        • By impact type (relevant to accessibility)
          1. Visual
          2. Auditory
          3. Cognitive
          4. Motor
  • Correcting specific issues
    1. Links Should Contain Text: 
      • Check box “Delete this link completely instead”
      • Best practices suggest to not add an external link to an image.
    2. Insufficient Text Color Contrast with the Background
      • Click the up arrow to increase contrast ratio. When the box turns green, contrast is accessible.     
      • Click the Color Picker and select a more accessible color.
    3. Image Elements Should Have an “alt” Attribute
      • Cannot use the image’s file name.
      • For complex images, best practices suggest including a description (up to 125 words).
    4. No Table Headers found
      • Select Column Header, Row Header, or both
    5. Closed Captions Were Auto-Generated
      • UDOIT can scan YouTube and Vimeo videos
        • UDOIT does not currently scan Mediasite videos
      • Adding or editing captions needs to be completed outside of UDOIT.
    6. Captions were not found
      • If the video has captions, you may click Mark as resolved.
    7. Link has non-descript text (under Suggestions)
      • Add text for the link
      • Check “Delete this link complete instead”:
  • UDOIT scans the HTML in Canvas, but does not currently scan files (coming soon!)
    • PDFs and other files (i.e. Microsoft Office) are listed for your review but changes need to be made outside of UDOIT and reuploaded.


  • Three dots (upper right corner)
    1. Reports
      • Issues
      • Resolutions
      • Issues by type

For additional assistance with the UDOIT Cloud tool, contact canvas@unthsc.edu

Developed by the Department of Educational Development, Division of Academic Innovation, September, 2022