Quercus Accessibility Checker

What Can I Use It For?

The Quercus Accessibility Checker, integrated within the Quercus (Canvas) Learning Management System, offers several key features to help ensure content is accessible to all users by scanning course content for accessibility issues, such as missing alt text for images, improper heading structures, and insufficient color contrast. The Checker provides immediate feedback and suggestions for fixing common accessibility issues.

This Academic Toolbox tool helps you...

Design for Inclusion

Typical course activity format:

Synchronous or asynchronous

Quercus integration

Built-in tool

Where can I get more support?

Divisional Support Contacts

Quercus Support

Consultations

Cost

Centrally funded

How to Get Started

The icon to open the Quercus Accessibility Checker is located at the bottom of individual pages. Selecting the icon, which is the image of a man within a circle, will open a pane at the side of the main window that shows each flagged issue and suggestions for correcting it.

Instructions

To open the Quercus Accessibility Checker in your course, follow these steps:
Go to any page in your course and click Edit.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Select the Quercus Accessibility Checker icon – it’s a circle with a stylized body inside. If there’s a number at the top of the icon, that means that the Accessibility Checker has flagged issues.
Once you select the icon, a pane will open at the side of your page and you can fix any accessibility issues.
View Accessibility Checker Notifications

Images from How do I use the Accessibility Checker – Instructure Community
Open Checker
If any accessibility issues are detected within the Rich Content Editor, the Accessibility Checker displays an indicator [1].
To view accessibility issues, click the Accessibility Checker icon [2].
View Issues
When an issue is detected, the Rich Content Editor highlights the affected area [1].
The sidebar displays the accessibility attribute [2] and an explanation of the error [3].
To learn more about the accessibility attribute, click the Information icon [4].
View Additional Issues
If the Rich Content Editor contains more than one issue [1], you can view all issues by clicking the Previous or Next buttons [2].
Apply Fix
To correct an issue, complete the task noted in the sidebar [1]. For example, if the issue is missing alt text, add it to the image. The sidebar displays a text field for you to enter alt text.
When finished with the changes, select the Apply button [2].
The Accessibility Checker will apply the fix and display information for the next issue.
Confirm Fix

When all issues have been fixed, or if no issues are detected in the Rich Content Editor, the sidebar indicates that no issues exist and will close automatically.

Guides

Guides
Review what accessibility accommodations are available in Quercus Quizzes (Engineering)
Accommodations in Quercus (UTM)

Last Modified:

28 May, 2025

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License