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This guide provides technical information for instructors about making accessible quizzes and tests in Canvas. If you have questions about the accessibility of your course materials, including assessments, you can request a digital accessibility review from the Accessibility Technologist in Mines IT.
Please visit the Trefny Center project website on Effective and Accessible Assessments for more information, examples, and resources about designing inclusive and accessible assessments.
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The Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) includes a built-in accessibility checker. The checker will scan your content and identify many common accessibility issues, such as a lack of color contrast, missing alternative text, and improper use of headings, tables, and lists. The checker will also give examples of how to fix the issues.
Some types of questions in Classic Quizzes may not be accessible for all users. Design your quizzes to use question types that are more accessible.
Best practices for multiple choice questions
- Tell users in the question text whether they should select multiple responses or a single response.
- Avoid using the Multiple Dropdowns option for multiple choice questions.
- The menus can be difficult to navigate for students who use a keyboard or screen reader.
- Drop-down menus are also more difficult to use when creating print versions of quizzes from Canvas.
- Select the Multiple Choice question type when there is a single correct response. This will create a list of answers with radio buttons.
- Select the Multiple Answers question type when there can be multiple answers. This will create a list of answers with check boxes.
Best practices for fill-in-the-blank questions
- Help screen reader users understand the question structure by using [blank] or [blank1], [blank2] when creating sentences.
- Avoid using underscores to indicate blanks. Screen readers will read each underscore aloud, which can be confusing.
Create accessible math
The Rich Content Editor in Canvas includes a LaTeX-based equation editor that you can use to add accessible equations to Canvas quizzes. You can create equations using the graphical editor or by typing or pasting LaTeX into the editor.
Test accessible math
To test how an equation in Canvas will sound for text-to-speech or screen reader programs, you can use the built-in Immersive Reader in Canvas. The Immersive Reader will read aloud the text on the page, including accessible math.
Convert math to accessible formats
If you need to convert math from a Word document, PDF, image, or physical resource into LaTeX or MathML, please install and use Equatio. Equatio is equation editing and creation software that is free to use with your Mines email address.
Images, diagrams, and figures used in the quiz need alternative text (alt text) that uniquely identifies the image and describes the image’s relationship to the quiz questions.
If the image is a chart or diagram that contains information necessary to solve a quiz problem, you should also include the necessary information in the text of the question, a long description of the image, or a separate data file.
When including data that students need to use to answer quiz and test problems, always include that data as a well-formatted data table in Canvas or as a spreadsheet. Do not scan or screen capture data and add it as an image.
Consider offering assessments in formats other than a timed quiz or test. Placing unnecessary or arbitrary time limits on assessments can make the results of those assessments less valid, reliable, inclusive, and equitable (Gernsbacher et al, 2020).
When you do use a timed quiz or test for assessment, be sure that you know how to add extra time for students who have accommodations. If you need help managing quiz timing in Canvas, please submit a Mines IT Canvas help request or call the IT Help Desk at 303-278-4357.