Training Opportunities
Canvas Accessibility
Asynchronous Course for Content Editors
This is a five-module course that covers the basics of digital accessibility, aiming to increase understanding of accessibility issues and how to resolve them. Please fill out the Canvas Accessibility Training form (login required) to get access.
Synchronous Accessibility Trainings
Northwestern IT's Teaching and Learning Technologies team regularly hosts virtual trainings on many elements of digital accessibility in Canvas from course design to error remediation. Current training options include:
- Make Your Canvas Content More Accessible in Seven Simple Steps
- Fixing the Most Common Canvas Accessibility Errors in Seconds
- Get to Zero Accessibility Errors in 45 Minutes
- Using Assistive Tech to Navigate a Canvas Course Site
- Stylish and Accessible - Using Divs to Format your Canvas Site
- Writing Alt Text for Complex Images
- 5 Simple Steps for Creating Accessible Source Docs
Register for an upcoming training on Eventcat.
Accessible Purchase Process Training
An in-depth, step-by-step walk through of the accessible purchasing process is available as a self-paced, Canvas training course. This training takes roughly 45 minutes to complete and explains the process, offers case studies and provides resources to help follow the process. Access to the course is available upon request.
Siteimprove Webinars and Training Resources
- Introduction to Siteimprove to learn how you can utilize the Siteimprove platform to identify QA and accessibility issues.
- Playlist of Siteimprove Webinars on Accessibility Topics
- Siteimprove Frontier for comprehensive accessibility courses tailored to different user roles.
LinkedIn Learning
Northwestern University students, faculty and staff have unlimited, on-demand access to a variety of online training courses on accessibility at no cost. Follow the links of selected courses below – you will need to login with your University email/netID if you are not already logged in via single sign-on – or go to the main LinkedIn Learning page and search “accessibility” for more courses (check the Northwestern Human Resources website for the main login link).
- Creating Accessible PDFs – depending on your level of familiarity with accessibility, you may want to skip right to the tactical PDF accessibility modules.
- Creating Accessible Documents in Microsoft Office - This 25-minute course covers the basics of accessibility in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Experiencing an Inaccessible Website – Skip to “Why Accessibility Matters” for a brief walk-through that demonstrates the difficulty people encounter when trying to navigate an inaccessible website via a keyboard and screen reader.
- Experiencing an Accessible Website – Skip to “Why Accessibility Matters” to learn how someone would navigate the same website showcased above, in the inaccessible site video, once the proper accessibility fixes have been made.
- Accessibility for Web Design - This two-hour course, targeted to those fairly new to the field, covers the basics of accessible web design.
- UX Foundations: Accessibility - This popular course looks at making websites accessible from a user experience perspective, focusing on how someone with a disability might use a website and what that means in terms of design. It also introduces participants to different assistive technologies that might be used to access a site.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Course instructors can learn about guidelines and strategies for implementing Universal Design for Learning to make classes accessible to all students. Learn more about Universal Design for Learning.
The Pope Tech Accessibility Guide is a Canvas integration that enables instructors to identify accessibility issues in their Canvas course. Learn more about how to use Pope Tech in Canvas.
Office for Civil Rights Resources on Website Accessibility
A new series of "how-to" videos on website accessibility by The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that covers a variety of topics on digital access in education, including how people with disabilities use technology, applicable Federal regulations, and identifying and remediating barriers to access.