UDOIT - What is it? What does it look for? How do you run it? Its flaws, and how to overcome them with good design.
What is it?
The Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool, or UDOIT, enables faculty to identify accessibility issues in Canvas courses. It will scan a course, generate a report, and provide resources on how to address common accessibility issues.
Why use it?
One of the five values of CCS is Access. UDOIT helps provide access by acting as a tool for faculty to design Canvas courses that are more accessible to all learners.
How to start?
UDOIT has been placed in the shell of every Canvas course. You can see it located in your course navigation. Click the link in your course navigation, and then click the green button at the bottom to start your scan.
What are the Issues?
UDOIT doesn't come without flaws. eLearning has identified that while it is a fantastic resource that can help teach and train faculty on how to create more accessible courses, there still are some issues that arise. For example, the program crashes and won't run on some courses. It also identifies errors that aren't accessibility issues, such as when an image is used for design purposes only and isn't crucial to understanding the content. UDOIT may flag that image if it doesn't have an Alternative Description Tag. Alternative Description Tags, or "Alt Tags", describe an image for students that have visual limitations and rely on screen reader technology to interpret visual content. (more on this later in the module.)
Screen Readers
Screen readers are programs that will read on-screen content to a computer user. Many people who have low or no vision rely on this kind of technology to be able to use computers on a daily basis. This includes surfing the web, ordering stuff from Amazon, and of course, taking online courses like yours. Being accessible to students with disabilities is one of the many advantages of online learning because the majority of the content is already in digital format. However, content needs to be formatted correctly so that the program can accurately understand what it is and tell the user. Whenever you see this green box with the audio icon you will have the opportunity to hear what different types of content sound like when using a screen reader.
Click the audio icon below to hear what this box sounds like when read by the Windows 10 "Narrator" screen reader.