Pope Tech Dashboard

Students Working with Technology

The Pope Tech Dashboard

Getting Started

Pope Tech Vocabulary

Below are some vocabulary that will be helpful to know as you embark on utilizing the Dashboard:

  • Accessibility Guide – this is the button in Canvas at the bottom of the page (button with a P on it).
  • Enable – in order to use the Dashboard, you must first give the tool permission.
  • Pope Tech Dashboard – located in the course navigation menu, this tool allows you to scan your course for accessibility and identities issues throughout your course:
  • Errors – These issues are absolute barriers to learning for students.
  • Alerts – These are possible errors for your review
  • Content Blocks – Term to refer to pages, discussions, quizzes, etc. in Canvas.
  • Remediate – Process of fixing accessibility errors and issues in existing content.Rich Content Editor (RCE) – In Canvas, the box where you add content.

Enabling the Dashboard

Enabling the Pope Tech Dashboard helps you to identify accessibility barriers in your courses, which guides you through remediation using their Accessibility Guide. If you want more detailed instructions, go to Enable Pope Tech Dashboard.

Getting Started with Pope Tech Dashboard

The Dashboard evaluates all Canvas HTML content created in the Rich Content Editor (RCE). When you start remediating content, keep in mind that announcements and discussions do not have the Accessibility Guide. Here is a workaround to remediate this content:

  • You can create content in an alternate location, such as a Canvas Page or Microsoft Word, to check for accessibility and remediate.
  • Once remediated, copy-and-past the content into an announcement or discussion.

After scanning your course, follow instructions for using the Dashboard. Don’t forget the human touch! Documents (pdfs), Canvas videos, and YouTube videos are identified as Alerts that need to be manually reviewed.

Using the Dashboard

After scanning your course, the Dashboard will identify accessibility issues and categorize them by errors, alerts, and content blocks. Below are some helpful videos and links with detailed instructions how to use the Dashboard.

Develop a Remediation Plan

It is best to develop a plan to remediate your course accessibility errors and alerts. Choosing a path will increase the efficiency of remediation and hopefully maximize time needed to remediate all issues. 

Please note, that depending on the number of errors and alerts identified after scanning, the process of remediation could vary from a short, quick period of time, to the need for a long, meticulous remediation route. Although it is unlikely that a course will ever fully reach 100% accessibility, due to the iterative nature of teaching and learning, using the Dashboard is a good step toward improving accessibility and increasing access to learning for all of your students. 

Step 1: Preparation

Regardless of which option you choose, depending on the amount of alerts and errors, it’s a good idea to establish short and long term goals for remediation by chunking the work, such as: 

  • Remove content not in use.
  • Rename unused content (e.g. UNPUBLISHED)

In doing so, you make the unused content easily identifiable in the Dashboard scan, and therefore don’t waste time remediating content that is no longer relevant.

Step 2: Make a Remediation Plan

Regardless of which option you choose, depending on the amount of alerts and errors, it’s a good idea to establish short and long term goals for remediation by chunking the work, such as: 

  • Short Term Goal – remediate 5 content blocks a week
  • Long Term Goal – complete one class by the end of the semester

Keep in mind that depending on the outcome of your course scan, this could be a long process, or a quick one. It really depends on the scan results and the time you have to dedicate to remediating your courses. Set up reasonable and achievable goals for you, and set aside time to remediate at a reasonable pace.

Option 1: Canvas Files and Pages

By going to Canvas Files in your course navigation menu, you can quickly identify accessibility errors in images and docs.

  • Add alt text to all images.
  • PDFs are problematic and often difficult to remediate
    • Identify unused PDFs and other files (remove to clean up)
    • Do you have the source document?
      • Open source document and use Accessibility tool to remediate.
    • Submit Documentation Remediation Request to the District.
  • Go to Dashboard once you’ve cleaned up these files and follow Option 2 or 3.

Option 2: Dashboard Errors/Alerts

Start with errors. Focus on each type of error one by one (e.g. images first, color contrast next, then content blocks, next, etc)

  • In Most Common Issues, click on the error type that you are going to work on.
  • Scroll down to the Results which displays the content locations of these errors.
  • Click on the edit button to begin remediating using the Accessibility Guide
    • Fix all types of errors in content block using Accessibility Guide.
  • Re-scan course. When you remediate the entire content block (all errors and alerts), the errors/alerts will still show on the Dashboard until you rescan the course. Rescan course each time that you complete remediating by type of error or alert.
    • Some errors and alerts will always appear on the Dashboard because you must evaluate accessibility using your own review, such as document and video accessibility.
  • Repeat the process and remediate errors and alerts, one-by-one.

Option 3: Content Blocks

After scanning, scroll down to the Content Blocks and remediate each content block one-at-a time, using the Accessibility Guide. There is no need to rescan after each remediation using this option, however, even after you remediate each content block, it will appear on your Dashboard. When you are ready, re-scan the course.

Accessibility Tips

The Dashboard and Accessibility Guides show you how to remediate content, and the ITC Accessibility pages have resources to support you in making accessible course documents. Below are some quick guidelines to consider when creating or remediating all types of content.

Videos

The PopeTech Dashboard and Accessibility Guide do not identify if videos are accessible, but they do remind you to check accessibility which includes:

  • Closed captions are the gold standard.
  • Accuracy and grammar matter.

Options for support getting closed captions:

Document Remediation

The PopeTech Dashboard and Accessibility Guide does not identify accessibility issues in documents, but they do remind you to review accessibility, which includes:

  • Appropriate nested heading structure (Heading 1, 2, etc.)
  • Descriptive hyperlinks
  • Color and contrast
  • Tables are descriptive and have headers
  • Software specific issues (e.g. reading order in presentations)
  • Source documents are easier to remediate than PDFs.

Options for support remediating documents:

Images

The Dashboard and Accessibility Guide will identify missing or suspicious alt-text, but cannot evaluate appropriateness and context. Here are a few things to consider:

  • If the image is used to make the page look better, mark it as decorative.
  • If the image is used to convey content:
    • Add alt-text to describe the image.
    • Alt-text should not exceed 125 characters
    • Review alt-text to censure that it supports the context.
  • If the alt-text cannot be captured in 125 characters, provide a long description or alternate format.
  • If written information is near or around the image, do not duplicate that information in the alt-text (this is repetitive for those using screen readers).

Options for support remediating images:

Content Blocks

The Dashboard and Accessibility Guide are very good at identifying in accessible content blocks and providing guidance through remediation, including:

  • Color and Contrast
  • Headings
  • Tables and Lists
  • Hyperlinks
  • Alt-text
  • Documents and Videos
  • Other

The Accessibility Guide will also indicate where manual review is needed, including for images and documents.

A great option for support remediating content blocks is to submit an Accessible Course Design Assistance Request. The ARC Universal Design and Accessibility Coordinator can work with you one-on-one to remediate this content.

ITC Accessibility Support

As always, if you have questions, you can contact us at ITCtraining@arc.losrios.edu. 

Would you like support from your Universal Design and Accessibility Coordinator, to work in depth on accessibility? Submit an Accessible Design Assistance Request and work with your UDAC to:

  • develop a plan, and report the time spent remediating your course as flex hours – guaranteed! 
  • draft an application for Professional Leave Type A or B to remediate your course(s) and get release time! This is not guaranteed and is subject to approval. Your UDAC has an application template with a lot of the justification for release time already drafted; it is just a matter of tweaking the application to fit your specific needs and goals.