Top 5 Steps

What will have the biggest impact for your students while making the most efficient use of your time! Here are our Top Five accessibility steps.

The unofficial first step is: Start Today! Right now is the best time to make your future course materials more accessible. 

Use the Canvas Course Template

CSUN Canvas course template card from Canvas Commons

One of the top requests from students is consistency. Consistency is a recurrent theme throughout the accessibility criteria too.

The CSUN Canvas Course Template was designed to support accessibility and delivers:

  • Consistent course experience
  • Navigation and more
  • Equity-minded practices

The CSUN Canvas Course Template is fully customizable.

Download the CSUN Canvas Course Template from Canvas Commons.

Run TidyUP

While not an accessibility tool per se, the new TidyUP tool in Canvas helps us meet our accessibility goals.

TidyUP lets you see at a glance which pages and files in a Canvas course are published -- and which aren't. 

Use TidyUP to download and archive unused content, then remove it from an active course. Some of your options for archiving unused content include myCSUNbox or a Blueprint course in Canvas. Contact the Faculty Technology Center (FTC) to explore your options. 

TidyUP helps you focus your accessibility efforts where they’re needed most.

Welcome to TidyUP: a file and content clean-up tool for Canvas courses. Scan course.

Review Your Course Accessibility Report

Course Accessibility Report showing the score and multiple "ways to get started."

Your Course Accessibility Report is your guide to making big accessibility improvements in your Canvas course.

The Course Accessibility Report gives you tailored steps for you and your course.

  • Want to begin with your easiest issues? The Course Accessibility Report will walk you through those from the "Easiest to fix" button.
  • Want to start big? Select "High Impact Issues" instead.
  • Do you know you have student(s) in your class with specific needs? "By impact type" lets you focus on items that might affect an individual student.
  • Select the Review button next to each item for guidance and options to address any issues found. 

Access the Course Accessibility Report through your course menu; it often appears near the bottom, close to Settings. The report is visible only to you (to people in your course with the role of Teacher).

Caption Videos

New for Spring 2026! 

Panopto: Now you can request professional closed captions directly within Panopto.

  1. Select Settings

  2. Captions

  3. Request Captions

  4. Select the Service Level

  5. Order

Learn more about Panopto: Closed Captions Self-Service

For all other videos, start with the New Media Request Form from NCOD: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. 

Video still from C.S.U.N. commencement. A graduate holds their diploma aloft. The closed captions read "and together, as Matadors, we will move mountains."

Check for Broken Links

404 page not found.

The #1 reported “accessibility” issue from students is broken links. 

Canvas has a built-in link checker!

In your Canvas course menu, select Settings. From the right-hand menu, select "Validate Links in Content."

Do you want to keep going after tackling the Top Five? 

Next up: Descriptive Text.