Spend less time wrestling with files. Spend more time teaching.

WCAG 2.1 AA quick-check for course materials

Print this. Use it before posting any file to Canvas.

• Headings — use H1 → H2 → H3 in order. No skipping levels. No fake "bold large text" headings.
• Alt text on every image — describe what the image conveys, not how it looks. Decorative? Mark it decorative.
• Color contrast ≥ 4.5:1 — body text against background. Use WebAIM's contrast checker.
• Link text describes the destination — never "click here" or "this link." Say where it goes.
• Tables have row + column headers — use proper table tags, not images of spreadsheets.
• Videos have captions — auto-captions need a human editing pass for 100% accuracy.
• PDFs are tagged — scanned images of text are not accessible. Use OCR + Acrobat's "Tag" feature.
• Lists use real list formatting — bullets and numbers via the toolbar, not typed manually.
• Don't rely on color alone — use icons or labels too (e.g. "✗ Wrong" not just red text).
• Run your file through the fixer — Maxademics Canvas Fixer catches what humans miss.

Official spec: W3C WCAG 2.1 AA Quick Reference.

How to write alt text (the 30-second rule)

Alt text describes what the image conveys to the reader, not how it visually looks. If the image is decorative (a divider line, a stock photo of "people working") mark it as decorative — don't waste the screen-reader user's time.

Good: "Bar chart showing 2025 enrollment grew 12% over 2024, driven by graduate programs."
Bad: "Bar chart."

Good: "Diagram of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection."
Bad: "Image of the water cycle showing arrows and clouds."

Rule of thumb: if you were describing this image to a student over the phone, what would you say? That's your alt text. Aim for under 125 characters.

Reference: WebAIM — Alternative Text.

How to caption a video (free tools, fast workflow)

Auto-captions get you ~85% accuracy. WCAG and ADA need ~99%. That last 14% takes ~3 minutes per minute of video — but you can outsource it cheaply.

Best free auto-caption tools:

• YouTube Studio — upload unlisted, auto-captions in ~5 min, edit them right there, then download the .srt file
• Otter.ai — best for live Zoom captions and transcripts (300 free minutes/month)
• Zoom — built-in auto-captions during meetings. Save the transcript after recording.

For polished captions: Rev.com charges $1.50/min for human-edited 99% accuracy with 24-hour turnaround.

How to tag a PDF (3-minute Acrobat fix)

Untagged PDFs fail screen readers — they're just images of text to assistive tech. Tagging tells the reader "this is a heading, this is a paragraph, this is a list."

If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro:

1. Open the PDF → Tools → Accessibility → Autotag Document
2. Run "Accessibility Check" (same menu) to see what's still flagged
3. Use the "Reading Order" tool to fix any blocks that got mis-tagged

Don't have Acrobat Pro? Skip the manual work — drop your PDF into the Maxademics Fixer, it tags PDFs using LibreOffice + qpdf and returns a tagged copy.

Free + low-cost accessibility tools (curated)

• Color contrast: WebAIM Contrast Checker — paste foreground + background hex codes, get instant pass/fail
• Screen reader testing (Mac): VoiceOver — built-in. ⌘+F5 to toggle.
• Screen reader testing (Windows): NVDA — free, open source, the standard tester use.
• Browser accessibility audit: WAVE — paste a URL, see every WCAG issue color-coded.
• Document accessibility: Maxademics Fixer (this site) — handles .docx, .pptx, .pdf, .imscc.
• Captions: Otter, YouTube Studio, Zoom built-in. Rev.com for 99% accuracy.
• Alt text generation: ChatGPT / Claude — upload the image, ask "Write WCAG-compliant alt text under 125 characters."
• UDL framework reference: CAST.org — the organization that created UDL.