{"id":3004,"date":"2021-03-29T16:33:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T20:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/brightspace\/instructors\/?page_id=3004"},"modified":"2025-08-25T13:30:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:30:34","slug":"accessibility-in-brightspace-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/brightspace\/instructors\/accessibility-in-brightspace-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility in Brightspace"},"content":{"rendered":"
Faculty and instructors have a critical role to play in creating equitable access to education for learners of all abilities. D2L Brightspace has tools to assist <\/span>the design of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>courses to ensure WCAG<\/a>\/AODA<\/a><\/span> standards are met on content pages created within Brightspace courses.<\/span><\/p>\n Accessibility also means thoughtful course design, such as effective organization of co<\/span>ntent materials, chunking information into meaningful topics, creating accessible documents, adding alt text to images, and using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This help page outlines some of the feat<\/span>ures present in Brights<\/span>pace which\u00a0<\/span>will help you<\/span> create a more accessible and inclusive course experience for all learners.<\/span><\/p>\n Each user in Brightspace can customize their particular experience in Brightspace. The user experience can be customized to meet the needs of a range of users with the ability to set the interface language, to choose the default font size, and to customize the interface for use with assistive technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n System Check scans and reports back on the browser’s compatibility with Brightspace. The system check reviews the browser’s version, settings, and configuration to confirm whether it will support all functionality of Brightspace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n NOTE: <\/strong>Third party tools are not part of the system check. Tools that plugin to Brightspace, such as Zoom, H5P, ARES, and Kaltura are not checked by the System Check.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The HTML editor appears in multiple tools and content areas within a Brightspace course. The HTML editor, with its associated tools, allows for customized content pages, such as Brightspace pages with specific heading levels, customized font sizes, added images, attached files, and hyperlinks.<\/p>\n Content in Brightspace can be made more accessible by using the<\/span> built in features within the HTML editor discussed below.\u00a0 <\/span>The HTML text editor is present in the following areas of Brightspace courses: Announcements, Course Details, Add a description, Create a File, and tool windows (i.e. Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions, etc.).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ensuring accessibility of your content pages in Brightspace includes:<\/strong><\/p>\n Heading levels help organize your document in a hierarchical structure so that students can understand the logical relationship of information. Heading levels allow for skim reading and important meaning making, as headings often indicate the most important ideas. Within a content page, the title of the document <\/span><\/span>should be Heading Level 1 (<\/span><\/span>H1<\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/span>, and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>sub-sequent sub-titles\u00a0<\/span><\/span>should\u00a0<\/span><\/span>follow logically heading level 2, 3, 4, (H2, H3, H4, etc.). All parts of a document should have assigned heading tags so that it can be read properly by a screen reader.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The HTML text editor allows instructors to set heading tags to content pages in a course. The text editor is present in the following areas of Brightspace courses: Announcements, Course Details, Add a description, Create a File, and tool windows (i.e. Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions, etc.).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n TIP:<\/strong> For a document title, choose H1; for a subheading use H2, H3, or H4 depending on the logical flow of the document; for body text use Paragraph. If you have any questions about document accessibility, please feel free to create a support request using the\u00a0TLS Support Portal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n For text to be readable for anyone in a course, the font colours must have sufficient contrast ratio with the background colour. If the font colour and background colour have too low contrast ratio, the text will be difficult to read. Contrast ratios should not be assessed by the naked eye, as different readers have varying contrast capabilities. To check the contrast of your foreground and background text, use the colour selector in the Brightspace HTML editor.<\/p>\n The HTML editor is present in the following areas of Brightspace courses: Announcements, Course Details, Add a description, Create a File, and tool windows (i.e., Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions, etc.).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NOTE:<\/strong>The WCAG rating will change based on your colour selection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n After adding course content, use the Check Accessibility and Check Spelling functions in Brightspace to scan the text in the HTML editor for accessibility errors. Check Accessibility in Brightspace can identify accessibility issues that you may have missed, so that they can be resolved quickly. Common accessibility errors that may be flagged, include low colour contrast, missing alternative text for images, and incorrect or missing heading levels. Check Spelling can identify typos or misspelled words in your text.<\/p>\n 3. Select Update<\/strong> or Save<\/strong> to finalize your changes.<\/p>\n The alternative text is a short description of what an image contains or represents. All images added to HTML text areas need to have alternative text descriptions. When images add meaning to the content, that meaning should be explained for all learners. When an image is purely for decoration, the image can be marked decorative so that an assistive device does not read the image. Whenever you insert an image in the course, <\/span><\/span>you will be prompted to add alternative text descriptions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Upload videos to Kaltura Mediaspace for added accessibility features in Brightspace. Using 杏吧原创’s mediaserver (Mediaspace) ensures that videos load more smoothly for students and voids bogging down the course load time. <\/span>Kaltura also has an accessible video player which enables students to have some control over their viewing experience<\/span>. The accessibility features include: playback control, automated captions (or English official when present), the ability to customize captions, and the ability to watch videos at full screen.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mediaspace also allows the downloading of the video transcripts which can be embedded in Brightspace <\/span>and made available for learners. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Note<\/span><\/b>: <\/span><\/b>Video titles may need to be changed after embedding them in Brightspace. The video title will be brought from Kaltura Mediaspace with the name given to it when it was recorded. To ensure the video title is accessible and meaningful to students, update the video title as needed.<\/span>\u00a0Refer to\u00a0<\/span>Adding Kaltura videos to\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>Brightspace<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/a> documentation for instructions.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember to keep videos short to make video content more easily accessible to students with low bandwidth and low internet speed.<\/p>\n Use modules and sub-modules to organize content into meaningful chunks\/topics of information. Logical organization enables easy navigation of your Brightspace course page for the learners. Content can be organized into weekly sections, units, or modules.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Consider adding dates to each of the modules to flag to students when the materials contained in that section will be made\u00a0<\/span>available<\/span>\u00a0to them.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Create a helpful video overview of how to navigate the Brightspace course page and where to find key content. A short tutorial will make sure your students know exactly where to find what they need for success.<\/p>\nConfiguring User Preferences for Accessibility<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
To Access User Preferences<\/h3>\n
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System Check<\/span><\/span> for Compatibility<\/span><\/h2>\n
To Access the System Check Report<\/h3>\n
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<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAccessibility in the HTML Editor<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Adding Heading Levels in the HTML Editor<\/h3>\n
To Add a Heading Level to Content in the HTML Editor<\/h4>\n
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<\/p>\nChecking Colour Accessibility<\/h3>\n
To Check Colour Contrast in Content in the HTML Editor<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nChecking Accessibility and Spelling<\/h3>\n
To Run the Accessibility Checker and Spell Checker<\/h4>\n
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. See below for a visual of this button.
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<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAdding Alternative Text to Images<\/h3>\n
To Insert an Image With an Alternative Text Description<\/h4>\n
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\n<\/span><\/li>\nAccessible Video Content<\/h2>\n
Content Organization in Modules\/Submodules<\/h2>\n
Additional Resources<\/h2>\n
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