Enhance the Accessibility of Your Canvas Course with Pope Tech


Pope Tech is software that can detect and flag accessibility issues needing remediation within digital content. Through Pope Tech's integration with Canvas, you can identify accessibility issues in your Canvas course site and remediate them to make your site more accessible for all users.

Scan Canvas Content with the Pope Tech Accessibility Checker

Wherever the Rich Content Editor (RCE) appears in your Canvas course, you will find a button with the Pope Tech icon at the bottom right, next to the Cancel button. This icon replaces the Canvas accessibility checker icon that was formerly found immediately below the text box.

Select the Pope Tech button to activate the Pope Tech accessibility checker. When you do so, a dialog box will open at the side of your screen listing accessibility issues Pope Tech has detected. These will be divided into errors (which need immediate attention) and alerts (which may or may not need correction).

PopeTech dialog box showing errors and alerts

You can open up the menu next to an error or alert to see a detailed explanation of the issue, as well as recommendations for remediation. Select the Apply button to apply any changes you make.

Dialog box showing color contrast error and options for remediation

Once you have remediated one or more issues, you can select Rescan to have Pope Tech rescan the content area.

Scan Your Canvas Course with the Pope Tech Dashboard

To view your Pope Tech dashboard, select the Pope Tech Accessibility link in the Canvas course menu. The first time you do this, you will need to grant Pope Tech access to your Canvas account. If your course has not yet been scanned by Pope Tech, you will then be prompted to Enable and Scan. Depending on your course's position in the queue, this scan may take some time to complete.

The scan will give you an overview of issues in your course.

PopeTech Accessibility Dashboard for a Canvas course

Scroll down to see a list of content areas in your course where issues have been identified. You can drill down into a content area by selecting Detail or go directly to the content area to edit it by selecting Edit.

Detailed list of errors and alerts with Detail and Edit options

Once you have remediated one or more errors, you can scroll up and select the green Scan button to rescan your course.

Scan button with position in scanning queue shown

Further Resources

For help using Pope Tech, please see the following videos:

If you have further questions about using Pope Tech within Canvas, please contact Academic Technology Solutions. You can also reach out to the Center for Digital Accessibility with any questions about how to make your course materials more accessible.