Digital Accessibility Toolkit for Instructors

Creating Accessible Course Materials

Overview

As an instructor at UC Davis, you are responsible for ensuring that your instructional materials, Canvas sites, slides, documents, readings, videos, and handouts are accessible to all students. Students with disabilities must have equal access to course materials at the same time and with the same ease of use as others.

This page provides step-by-step guidance, practical tips, and campus resources to help you create accessible materials in preparation for the ADA Title II compliance deadline on April 24, 2026.

Quick links

Start Here
Preparing Your Course
Creating Content
Sharing Images or Video
Tools for Checking Accessibility
Get Additional Support

  Start Here: Quick Orientation

To help you get oriented, we recommend starting with these steps:

1. Watch

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II Update

A brief overview of what’s changing in April 2026 and how WCAG 2.1 Level AA applies to higher education.
To access captions, select the CC button at the bottom of the video player.
Video slides are here

2. Bookmark

Digital Accessibility Toolkit for Instructors

This page is your go-to hub for how-tos and UC Davis–specific resources. Bookmark it to reference as you update course materials and to stay current as tools and guidance evolve.

3. Start

Start Small, Build Forward

Pick one Canvas page, slide deck, or document to review first, then make one accessibility improvement, such as adding headings, improving color contrast, or adding alt text to an image. Gradually expand your accessibility practices to all materials and content.

  Preparing Your Course

Syllabus Accessibility Statement

An Accessibility Statement tells students what you’ve already done to make the course usable for everyone, not just what they can request if they have accommodations. It signals that accessibility is built into the design, not something students must ask for, which helps create a more welcoming and inclusive learning environment.

Sample Syllabus Accessibility Statement template for UC Davis instructors.

  Creating Content (Slides, Documents, Canvas Pages)

Built-in Styles and Templates

Use built-in styles to create a coded structure screen readers can interpret.

When creating content in Canvas, Word, or Google Docs, use the built-in heading and paragraph styles to organize your text. These styles add an underlying structure that assistive technologies rely on to understand and navigate content. Simply bolding text to “look” like a heading doesn’t provide this structure, which can make documents harder to use for people who rely on screen readers.

Resources:

 

Document Titles and Language

Set document titles in metadata and specify the language to ensure assistive technologies read your content correctly.

The title within a document's metadata is what many users’ assistive technology devices announce first. If you don’t set it properly, they may hear only the messy file name instead of the real title. Setting the language tells those devices how to pronounce words correctly. A few quick steps make the document easier for everyone who relies on text being read aloud.

Resources:

 

Reading Order (Slides)

Use Send to Back and Bring to Front in slides to ensure logical reading order.

Some people use technology that reads slides aloud, and it follows the slide’s hidden “reading order.” If the order is wrong, the content is announced in a confusing jumble. Pressing the Tab key reveals the order of the elements on the slide. Using Order -- Send Backward/Send to Back and Bring Forward/Bring to Front lets you fix the order so information is read in the way you intended.

Note: Slide content is read in layers. Items sent to the back are read first, and items brought to the front are read last. Using Send to Back and Bring to Front helps ensure content is read in a logical order.

Resources:

 

Descriptive Link Text

Descriptive text informs students where the link leads.

Some people navigate documents by jumping from link to link. If links just say “click here” or are just a string of characters (e.g. https://cheezburger.com/8821360640/), they have no idea where the link goes. Descriptive link text tells users what to expect before they open it.

Resources:

 

Color Contrast

Canvas Accessibility Checker flagging a color contrast error and showing how to drag selected color to increase contrast.

Ensure sufficient color contrast so text remains readable.

Some people can’t easily read low-contrast text—faint colors can disappear on their screens or in certain lighting. Strong contrast ensures the words are actually visible, readable, and don’t cause eyestrain for anyone. 

The built-in Accessibility Checker on Canvas will flag insufficient color contrast for you. 

Note: Logos are currently exempt from the color contrast rule.

Resources:

 

Creating Accessible PDFs from PowerPoint

Preserve accessibility features when exporting your slides.

Before creating a PDF, make sure your slide deck is accessible: use built-in headings, alt text for images, and follow the other accessibility best practices outlined on this page. Starting with an accessible presentation ensures the PDF preserves these features.

Note: Do Not Print to PDF - Printing to PDF will not preserve the document structure and will result in a PDF document with no tag structure.

Use these workflows to preserve accessibility when exporting your slides:
  • Microsoft 365 PowerPoint Desktop Application (Windows & Mac)
  • From the File menu, select Save As…, choose where to save the file, and select PDF from the Save As type list. By default, this produces a PDF that preserves the document structure, including headings, lists, tables, images, and language settings.

    Next Step: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to add a Title for accessibility:
    Go to File → Properties… → Description tab → type the title in the Title field, then save the PDF.
  • Microsoft 365 PowerPoint Desktop (Mac)
  • From the File menu, select Save As…, choose PDF as the file format, and ensure the option Best for electronic distribution and accessibility is selected. This produces a PDF that preserves the document structure and accessibility features.

    Next Step: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to add a Title for accessibility:
    Go to File → Properties… → Description tab → type the title in the Title field, then save the PDF.
  • PowerPoint Online (Web)
  • From the File menu, select Export… and then Download as PDF. This creates a PDF that preserves the document structure and accessibility features.

    Next Step: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to add a Title for accessibility:
    Go to File → Properties… → Description tab → type the title in the Title field, then save the PDF.

Tip: Always check the exported PDF using the Accessibility Checker in Acrobat to ensure tags, reading order, alt text, and headings are preserved.

 

Creating Accessible PDFs from Microsoft Word

Preserve accessibility features when exporting your documents.

Before creating a PDF, make sure your Word document is accessible: use built-in headings, alt text for images, and follow the other accessibility best practices outlined on this page. Starting with an accessible document ensures the PDF preserves these features.

Note: Do Not Print to PDF - Printing to PDF will not preserve the document structure and will result in a PDF document with no tag structure.

Use these workflows to preserve accessibility when exporting your slides:
  • Microsoft Word (Desktop App – Windows)
  • From the File menu, select Save As…, choose where to save the file, and select PDF from the Save As type list. By default, this produces a PDF that preserves the document structure, including headings, lists, tables, images, and language settings.

    Next Step: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to add a Title for accessibility:
    Go to File → Properties… → Description tab → type the title in the Title field, then save the PDF.
  • Microsoft Word (Desktop App – Mac)
  • From the File menu, select Save As…, choose PDF as the file format, and ensure the option Best for electronic distribution and accessibility is selected. This produces a PDF that preserves the document structure and accessibility features.

    Next Step: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to add a Title for accessibility:
    Go to File → Properties… → Description tab → type the title in the Title field, then save the PDF.
  • Microsoft Word Online (Web)
  • From the File menu, select Export… and then Download as PDF. This creates a PDF that preserves the document structure and accessibility features.

    Next Step: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to add a Title for accessibility:
    Go to File → Properties… → Description tab → type the title in the Title field, then save the PDF.

Tip: Always check the exported PDF using the Accessibility Checker in Acrobat to ensure tags, reading order, alt text, and headings are preserved.

  Sharing Images or Video

Alt Text

Screenshot demonstrating the alt text and mark as decorative options for images on Canvas

Provide short, meaningful descriptions for images.

Some people can’t see graphics, so their devices read a short description instead. But if instructors or content creators don't add this alt text description, assistive technology users miss whatever information the graphic is meant to convey. Add alt text to your slides, documents, Canvas pages, Outlook messages, social media posts, and anywhere else you include images.

Resources:

 

Captions and Transcripts

Ensure all video content has accurate captions.

Captions make audio content accessible to people who can’t hear. Without captions, they miss key information. 

WCAG 2.1 tells us that we must have fully accurate captions (with proper spelling and punctuation) for pre-recorded media (e.g. videos) and also enable captions for live events (e.g. lectures, presentations). For live captions, you can use the auto-captions supported by Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Zoom. 

Resources:

Tip: Zoom auto-captions have improved punctuation and capitalization. For in-person lectures, open Zoom and share your slides to project materials with live captions.

  Tools for Checking Accessibility

Further Learning and Resources

To build on the core steps in this toolkit, the following resources offer in-depth guidance on accessibility standards, training, and understanding the experiences of people with disabilities. These include technical guidance, workshops, webinars, and multimedia content to help you strengthen your inclusive course design. 

Need Help?

Contacts for Support

UC Davis

  • Teaching/Course Design
    Submit a Consultation Request with the Center for Educational Effectiveness

  • Compliance Questions
    Brad Starkey-Owens, Digital Accessibility Program Manager, Office of Compliance and Policy

  • Academic Accommodation Questions
    Jennifer Billeci, Executive Director, Student Disability Center

  • Legal Questions
    Wendi Delmendo, Chief Compliance Officer, Office of Compliance and Policy

UCOP