FAQ Accessibility
Here we have collected a few of the most frequently asked questions, and their answers, about accessibility and Canvas. The page is based on the questions we've recieved from teachers at KTH.
Question compilation
Last reviewed March 3, 2025.
To get to the questions, scroll down the page or press on the question in one of the lists in this compilation.
Administrative questions
Last reviewed March 3, 2025.
Can I make exceptions due to lack of time? For example, only adapt the content for current students disabilities
According to the Web Accessibility Directive all published content must be made accessible. No exceptions are made due to lack of time and students with disabilities should not have to tell the course coordinator their disability. There are also students with disabilities who hasn't told KTH that they are disabled.
Remember that making content accessible is helpful for all students, even if no students has permanent disabilities. For example, if their internet is slow the ALT-text will load instead of images. If they can't have the sound on without waking up their kids, the captions helps. High contrast makes it easier to read the page even with sunlight on the screen.
Should digital publications and e-books be made accessible if I link to them? I don't own that content nor do I publish it
The publisher should already have made the publications accessible, , but there is no requirement for you as a teacher to do so. However, you should of course take the accessibility perspective into account. If not all students can access the material, it is not okay.
You can always contact the publisher and ask if they have an accessible version.
Remember to link to the website where the author published the original version.
Do I have to add captions to all my videos I use?
The law's requirement for captions is explained on the page Film and sound . To sum it up, the law requires captions on all videos published from the 23rd of september 2020 as soon as they are published, except for live broadcasts. Recorded live broadcasts (for example a Zoom-lecture) must be captioned without undue delay, but can be published before the captioning is finished.
Can I share my course materials and schedule as files if the files are accessible?
Yes, the most important thing is that all materials are accessible. Ideally, however, course materials should be converted to pages in Canvas rather than shared as a downloadable file. Pages in Canvas are easier to navigate than files and are also easier to make accessible. Feel free to use the inbuilt calendar for schedules, or structure the modules chronologically instead of uploading a seperate file for the schedule.
Practical questions
Last reviewed March 3, 2025.
How can I adjust material in Canvas make it more accessible?
Create a distinct structure and clearly describe both the assignments and expectations. All course rooms are created with a templade with a clear structure. Feel free to use it.
You will find more tips on the page Accessibility tips and more detailed explanations on the pages Work with content (the focus is on webpages, but most information is true for everyone)
How do I write good ALT-text to complex images like graphs, flowcharts or models?
An ALT-text exists to give the reader relevant information, but not necessarily all information the image convey. It's often possible to describe a process or a relationship in text by going through it step by step.
Consider what information the graph should convey and how it will be used. The same image can be described in different ways depending on the expected use. If, for example, a graph only is used to show a relationship, then describe it (example: the price of fruit has increased over 20 years). But if the students are going to use the graph for calculations, it would be better to supplement the graph with a table of all the values (table 1 shows the price of fruit the last 20 years).
Note! ALT-text can not be longer than 125 characters and still be read by screen-readers. If more information is needed, write a short ALT-text like "the price of fruit over time" and write the longer description in the text itself.
Describing complicated graphs and illustrations - with concrete examples (diagramcenter.org).
How do I caption a video?
KTH has an automatic captioning function in KTH Play. The automatic captioning must checked manually, but it will do most of the job for you. Read more about Order machine-generated captions for the video (via the Reach module) .
I have scanned images that contain explanatory text, are they accessible?
No, images need ALT text even if they have explanatory text in them. You can also use optical character recognition (OCR) to convert text in scanned images into readable text for screen readers, which is suitable for longer texts such as image captions. Most scanners and scanning apps have an OCR function built in and there are many tools that can do it afterwards. Read more in Adobe's guide How to scan and get text from an image with OCR (adobe.com) .
Note! You may need to manually correct the text you used OCR on.
I'm going to publish different types of documents (PowerPoint, PDF, Excel etc), how do I make them accessible?
It depends on the type of document:
- For PDF documents read Adobe Acrobat Pro accessibility tutorial (helpx.adobe.com) .
- For PowerPoints, look through WebAIM's guide to PowerPoint (webaim.org) .
- For Excel files, read Excel accessibility guide (support.microsoft.com).
In general it's possible to search for the document type with "accessability" after it in search engines to find relevant guides to accessibility. If you're publishing documents you didn't create yourself you can always contact the publisher and ask if they have an accessible version.
Tip! Consider converting your document to a Canvas page. The format works better on mobile devices and is often easier to make accessible than document files.