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Brightspace Accessibility

Accessibility Checker


The accessibility checker may catch common accessibility issues in your content and offer suggestions to help you fix the issues. The accessibility checker is available on the HTML editor toolbar in Brightspace.

To use the accessibility checker:

  1. Open your Brightspace page and select Edit HTML.
    1. Click the three dots More Actions button if you do not see a second row on the editor toolbar.
  2. Open the Accessibility Checker.
  3. Follow the checker prompts to make changes.
    1. There may be options or additional information depending on type of issue.

Consider this video demonstration:

 

Accessibility Review

Consider the following manual and automated checks to maximize the accessibility of your Brightspace content:

Accessibility Consideration Best Practices
Prefer HTML, Word documents, and PowerPoint files. Use accessibility checkers in Brightspace, Word, and PowerPoint. Avoid PDFs as they are exceedingly difficult and time-consuming to make accessible.
  • Use Upload/Create > Create a File to create HTML pages.
  • Use Upload/Create > Upload Files to add Word and PowerPoint documents.
Use font size 16 minimum and prefer sans-serif fonts. Use the provided templates.
Use headings. Add headings using the Styles menu. Apply headings in sequential order without skipping a heading level.
Use numbered lists for steps in a process and bulleted lists for groupings of items. Use the List menu in the Brightspace editor.
Provide meaningful text descriptions of links destinations. Do not include bare URLs or unclear link text such as “click here” or “read more.”
  1. Type a description of the link destination
  2. Highlight the text
  3. Select Insert Quicklink in the Brightspace editor
  4. Select URL and paste the URL in the URL* field
  5. Click Insert
Ensure adequate colour contrast and do not use colour alone to differentiate or emphasize.
  • The Brightspace accessibility checker will flag inaccessible colour contrast.
  • Use colour and a symbol or text based cue to differentiate information.
Provide alternative text.
  • Add a description of the image when adding images to HTML pages.
  • Check This image is decorative for images that are not necessary to understand information or present the same information that is already available in text format.
Tables are only used to represent data.
  • Do not use an invisible table for alignment or layout purposes.
  • Tables must have header rows and/or columns. Avoid blank, merged, and split cells.
Math content must be accessible. Use EquatIO or the Brightspace Equation Editor to create accessible math and notation.
Caption videos and transcribe audio.
  • Use MediaSpace to host video content. Edit automatically generated captions and use Insert Stuff > My Media to add video content.
  • Use Word’s transcription tools to provide a text equivalent of audio content.
Any external learning tools and activities are accessible. Look for accessibility information on the platform or vendor’s webpage. Prepare an alternative activity or assessment in the event of an inaccessibility.

Checker Results

The accessibility checker tool checks for a number of issues. Below is a summary of what is checked and how well the Brightspace checker does in flagging issues:

Element checked Effectiveness of check
Colour contrast Strong
Can recognize contrast errors (both for regular and large size text) and provides shortcut to improve contrast.
Cannot determine if colour is used as sole indication of importance or emphasis.
Accessible links Weak
Does not check for bare URLS or descriptive link text.
Notes adjacent links directed to the same URL with a shortcut to repair.
Alternative text Moderate
Marks images that do not have alt text nor are marked as decorative.
Cannot identify whether the Alt text is appropriate or even meaningful.
Accessible headings Strong
Recognizes text that has been formatted to appear as a header but is not tagged as such (“This paragraph looks like a heading. If it is a heading, please select a heading level”).
Flags headings out of sequential order (“Headings must be applied in sequential order. For example: Heading 1 should be followed by Heading 2, not Heading 3”).
Accessible lists Strong
The checker notes text that appears to be a list but is not properly coded as a list, such as a list created manually using symbols and suggests creating a semantic list.
Accessible Tables Strong
Notes lack of table caption.
Asks for table summary on complex tables.
Notes when tables to do not have header cell(s).
Does not flag merged or split cells as these can be made accessible in HTML.

Note that the Brightspace Accessibility Checker does not check for captioned media.

Read more about the Brightspace Accessibility Checker.

Preview Tool

Select the Preview tool on the second row of the editor toolbar to view how the page will appear to students. Use this as a last step to ensure that on top of being accessible, your page appears as you want.

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License

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Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning Copyright © 2023 by Briana Fraser and Luke McKnight is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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