Verify Document and File Accessibility

KSU’s learning management system (LMS), D2L Brightspace, is designed to be accessible, with its menus, navigation bars, and native content structured to meet accessibility standards. However, it is crucial to ensure that the content we add—such as documents, websites, and images—is also accessible. You can check the accessibility of files like Microsoft Word documents and PDFs before uploading them, or use Blackboard Ally to review them after they are added to the course. Read the content below to learn how to check the accessibility of your files and documents!
A close-up of a person's hands typing code on a laptop keyboard. The code is visible on the screen, with glowing lines connecting the code to the keyboard. The background is blurred, with a focus on the hands and the laptop.

How To Make HTML Documents Accessible

  • For the most part, KSU’s learning management system (LMS), D2L Brightspace, is accessible—meaning that the structure of the LMS is rendered in such a way that all the menus, nav bars, and native content are already designed for accessibility. It’s the content we add to our D2L courses, such as our documents, websites, images, and other types of files, that we need to verify is accessible.

    Of course, with certain types of files and documents, such as Word documents and PDFs, you can check the accessibility before you place them in the course. You can also use Blackboard Ally to review that content after you’ve placed it in the course.

    However, many instructors like to create content directly in D2L using HTML documents rather than uploading documents. HTML documents are the pages you create in D2L by clicking the "Create a File option" under "Upload / Create" when editing your course. This is a great option for creating information in your course because it’s easily read by screen readers and doesn’t require a separate interface.

    arrow pointing to create a file in upload/create
     

  • You may be wondering whether it’s possible to check these files for accessibility the same way they are in a Word documents or PDFs.  You certainly can, and it’s very easy to use.

    To begin, click "Create a File" under the "Upload / Create" option or choose an HTML document you’ve already created (it will be labeled Web Page), open the down arrow, and click "Edit HTML".

    A dropdown menu with options for interacting with a file. The selected option is "Edit HTML". Other options include "View Topic", "Edit Properties In-place", "Add a sub-module", and "Delete Topic". Arrows point to the "Edit HTML" and "Add a sub-module" options.
     

    This opens the rich text editor, which allows you to add content to the HTML document.  You can write text, add images, graphics, or tables, etc.  As you work, make sure you click “Save.”  If you do not, the accessibility checker will not check new additions to the content.

    At the bottom right of the rich text editor, you’ll see several icons.  One of them looks like an eye with a little check mark next to it.  Click that icon to open the HTML accessibility checker.

    A screenshot of a web page with a cat photo. Above the image are options to "Change Path" and "Notify students that the content has changed." Below the image are three buttons: "Save and Close," "Save," and "Cancel." There is also a button with an eye icon to the right of the image.
     

    When you run the accessibility checker, D2L will begin searching your content for accessibility issues such as low-contrast, missing alt-text, table formatting, etc.  After clicking the icon, you will see one of two indicators.  A green indicator means there are no accessibility issues.  If the checker does find one or more issues, such as a table missing headers and alternative text, the indicator will be red and prompt you to fix the problem.  To fix the issue(s), make the requested changes, click “Repair Issue,” and go to the next issue until all issues are resolved.

    Accessibility Checker popup with an error message indicating that tables must have captions. The popup includes a text field to provide a caption, and buttons to repair the issue, ignore the issue, view the previous issue, or move to the next issue.
     

  • To learn even more about how to use the D2L Brightspace HTML accessibility checker, you can watch the video below.