ARCHIVED: About the Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT)

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.
Note:

The Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) was retired September 22, 2023. Ally is available for use in Canvas courses; to learn more, see Ally instructor guide and Ally alternative formats for students.

The Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) is an accessibility auditing tool for Canvas. UDOIT was created by the Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) at the University of Central Florida (CDL). This tool will scan your Canvas course, generate a report of accessibility issues that could create barriers to student learning, and provide resources for addressing these issues.

UDOIT will look for errors and provide suggestions in the following areas of your Canvas course:

  • Announcements
  • Files
  • Pages
  • Syllabus
  • Module URLs
  • Assignments

Note that some content isn't able to be scanned. Examples include external documents and some video and audio files for captioning and transcripts.

Common errors and suggestions

UDOIT reports generate both errors and suggestions for a page.

Below are common errors you may see on a UDOIT report:

  • No Alternative Text found
  • Alternative Text should not be the image filename
  • Alternative Text is more than 100 characters
  • Alt text for all img elements used as source anchors should not be empty
  • No table headers found
  • No row or column scopes declarations found in headers of the table
  • Insufficient text color contrast with the background
  • Multimedia objects should have text equivalents (for example, transcripts)

Below are common suggestions you may see on a UDOIT report:

  • Avoid the use of animated GIFs
  • Synchronized captions should be provided for prerecorded web-based video
  • Link text should be descriptive
  • The text equivalents (for example, transcripts and/or captions) for embedded content should update when content changes
  • Headings should contain text
  • Consider adding headings to your document to create more structure
  • Avoid using styles for document structure
  • Avoid using color alone for emphasis

Keep in mind that no automated tool is perfect at identifying accessibility issues. You may occasionally encounter false positives on a UDOIT report. For a comprehensive guide to false positives, see the UDOIT User Guide available in Canvas.

Get help

If you have questions, comments, or problems while using UDOIT, contact the UITS Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers at atac@iu.edu or 812-856-4112.

This is document atye in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2023-09-22 10:16:40.