Accessibility Checking and Remediation in Brightspace

What it means: This error means that Ally has discovered images in your document or on your webpage that don't have alt-text included on them. Alt-text, or alternate-text, is a selectable text description of an image. Alt-text makes it possible for people who are blind or low-vision, or just browsing without images, to understand the contents of your materials.

How to fix it: Go into your document and add alt-text to all meaningful images, or mark non-meaningful images as decorative. 

In a Microsoft Word document, right-click, or Control-click on an image and enter 1-2 short, active, vivid sentences in the box marked "Alt-Text". 

In a .pdf, add alt-text using Adobe Acrobat Pro's alt-text editor.

On a webpage, right-click the image and add alt-text through the Brightspace dialog box.

Learn more: Accessible Images & Alt-Text

What it means: this error means that you have uploaded a document that does not have any headings formally styled into the document. 

How to fix it: Add headings into your document.

• In Microsoft Word, use the Styles pane to add one and only one <Heading1> to your document. This is the title. Then add additional headings to the document -- still using the Styles pane -- to mark chapter or section headings. 
• In Microsoft PowerPoint, use the Microsoft Accessibility Assistant to ensure that all your slides have a Title set. If you run the Accessibility Assistant, it will tell you which slides don't have a Title, and walk you through the process of setting one.
• In a .pdf, open up Adobe Acrobat Pro, and use Prepare for accessibility > Fix reading order, to open the Fix reading order tool. Then use your mouse to draw a rectangle around the text on each page that you want to use for headings.

Learn more: Creating Accessible Documents

What this means: Ally has found at least one table in your documents that doesn't have a header row or column designated in it.

How to fix it: Make sure every table you add to a document has a header row or header column intentionally set.

For a .pdf, open up Adobe Acrobat Pro and choose the table editor tool. Make sure that either a header row is designated, or a first column is designated. Please note: this is an intermediate-level .pdf remediation task. If these instructions do not make sense to you, please use OAS' PDF Remediation Services.

For a document, in Microsoft Word, click anywhere inside each table and choose the "Table Design" ribbon at the top of your screen. At the very top left of the screen, you'll find that there are checkboxes, including one for "Header Row" and "First Column". One or both of those should be checked.

• If you have a table that makes the most sense being read from left to right through each row, choose "Header Row". 
• If on the other hand, your table makes the most sense being read from top to bottom, column by column, choose "First Column". 
• Some tables may be read either way, and you can check both.

Learn more: Creating Accessible Documents

What it means: The document in question is missing a title in the document's metadata. When an accessibility checker is looking for a title in a document, it's not looking at the pages of the document itself. You may have chosen a title for the first page of your document, but assistive technology depends on being able to describe a document by looking at the document's metadata. Metadata is information about a document that is separate from the contents of the document.

How to fix it: 

• In the Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel applications, go into File > Document Properties, and in the resulting dialogue box, choose "Summary". Enter the Title of the document in the "Title" field.
• In Microsoft Word 360, go to "About this File", and in the resulting dialogue box, enter the Title of the document in the "Title" field.
• For a .pdf, open up Adobe Acrobat Pro and go to File > Document Properties, and in the resulting dialogue box, enter the title of the document in the "Title" field.

Learn more: Creating Accessible Documents

What it means: This error generally only pertains to Microsoft Word documents or .pdf documents, but not PowerPoint presentations or Excel spreadsheets. Every document needs to have a title specified using the Styles pane (or document tags) at the beginning of the document. This title can only be <Heading 1> not <Title>.

How to fix it: 

• In Microsoft Word, find your title, and make sure that it's styled using the <Heading 1> style (via the Styles pane), and not <Title>. 
• For a .pdf, open up Adobe Acrobat Pro, find your title, and make sure it's tagged as <Heading 1>, and not <Heading 2>, <Heading 3>, or anything else. No <H2>, <H3>, or <H4> tags can appear before an <H1> in the tag tree. Please note: this is an intermediate topic in .pdf remediation. If these instructions don't make sense to you, please send your .pdf to be remediated via OAS' PDF Remediation Services.

Learn more: Creating Accessible Documents

In the video below, Donna Siemele shows you how to fix accessibility issues for instructions added to Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions in Brightspace.

Please note: the Ally accessibility checker cannot determine whether a video has captions nor how good the captions are. It also cannot determine whether a video needs audio description, nor whether an audio file, such as a podcast episode, needs a transcript.

All documents created at UVM and used by or shared with our campus community must be fully accessible to people with disabilities. Documents at UVM must meet WCAG standards 2.1 AA-level.

Document accessibility includes:

• Use meaningful alt-text for meaningful images.
• Use headings throughout, via each programs pre-set Styles panel
• One and only one <Heading 1>, used for the title of the document. Headings with larger numbers (2, 3, 4, or 5) should not appear before a <Heading 1>; <Title> should never be used.
• Charts or graphs have a text representation or explanation elsewhere in the text.
• The reading order is correct
• Use tables to display data, not for layout purposes
• Strong color contrast: check with the TPGi Colour Contrast Analyser
• Fonts no smaller than 12 points for the body text, and 20 points for headings

Title II defines electronic documents as web content or content in mobile apps that is in a .pdf, word processor, presentation, or spreadsheet file format. Database files are not included in this definition.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines specify that text must have adequate contrast from the color of its background, and that graphics must also have an adequate contrast against their backgrounds. This is one of the accessibility errors that automated accessibility checkers struggle with. It's something that needs to be checked manually. 

How to Check Color Contrast

Choose either the downloadable TPGi Colour Contrast Analyser or the browser-based WebAIM Color Contrast tool. Both tools are free, and both tools will give you an answer without you needing to calculate the math by hand.

TPGi Colour Contrast Analyser

• Open the Tool: Launch the CCA application on your Windows or Mac computer. It stays pinned as an overlay on top of your browser, document, or presentation.
• Select the Foreground Color: Click the eyedropper icon in the "Foreground colour" section, then click or hover over your text or UI element.
• Select the Background Color: Click the eyedropper icon in the "Background colour" section, then click the color directly behind your text. (For images or gradients, sample multiple spots where contrast looks weakest).
• Read the Results: Check the WCAG 2.1 results section near the bottom to view your exact contrast ratio (e.g., 4.5:1 or 7:1) and pass/fail status for AA and AAA compliance.

WebAIM Contrast Checker

• Input Foreground Color:
  • Type a Hex color code (such as #000000 for black) directly into the Foreground Color box, or click the color box to open the picker.
  • Use the eyedropper tool inside the color box to click and sample any visible color or text directly from your screen.
• Input Background Color:
  • Repeat the same process for the Background Color box by typing a Hex code, using the color picker, or grabbing a color with the eyedropper tool.
• Review the Contrast Ratio:
  • The tool instantly calculates the contrast ratio (e.g., 4.5:1 or 7:1).
  • It displays pass/fail results for Level AA and Level AAA standards across normal text, large text, and graphical objects/UI components.