October 5, 2020: Learn how to add alternative text in Canvas

Accessibility Goal of the Week

Last week we learned what alternative text (alt text) is and why it's important for students. This week we will read about how to add it to images in Canvas. For now, just read the instructions and watch the demo video. Next week we will take what we've learned and apply it.

Within your Canvas course, navigate to the page which contains the image.
Click the Edit button, which will open the Rich Content Editor (RCE).
For the purposes of this tutorial, we are going to assume that an image is already inserted into your page. Click on the image to select it, then click the "Embed Image" button.
The "Insert/Edit Image" box will appear. Locate the "Attributes" area and the box next to "Alt text". Type in a 1-2 sentence description for your image. For a purely decorative image, you can check the box beneath the Alt text box. This will hide the decorative image from screen-reading software and will not be voiced.
Click Update, and your alternate text will be saved. You won't be able to see it, but it's there!

Here is a video demonstrating how to alt text to an image in Canvas:

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