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This guidance is intended to help faculty prepare Canvas course materials for accessibility review and remediation. The project focuses on required student-facing materials, such as syllabi, schedules, readings, PDFs, slides, Canvas Pages, videos, assignments, discussions, and quizzes, that students must access or interact with as part of the course. Faculty are encouraged to review their course in the order students will experience it, using the syllabus and course schedule as the guide.
The scope of this work is not to fix every file in Canvas or make every Panorama icon green. Instead, the goal is to identify high-priority accessibility barriers, determine appropriate next steps, and document how required student-facing materials have been addressed. Panorama can help identify concerns, but it should be used as a supporting tool. Faculty are not expected to complete remediation before meeting with Faculty Support. The process is designed to help prepare for a focused and productive consultation.
Ongoing ADA Compliance
Accessibility review is an ongoing process and should be revisited before each course offering. Faculty should continue to review course content and resources each term to confirm that required student-facing materials remain accessible and that any unresolved issues are documented with a support need, accessible alternative, or remediation plan.
This ongoing review helps ensure that the course remains accessible for students as materials, links, tools, and resources change over time.
Faculty are encouraged to review available accessibility resources to become familiar with common accessibility concepts, tools, and remediation practices. Presentations and Brown Bag learning sessions will be offered simultaneously with remediation work with Faculty Support.
Available resources include:
Support for UMSN Faculty in Navigating Canvas Remediation Process
- Faculty Support will contact instructors before the start of each term based on the timeline below. At that time, Faculty Support will provide the intake form and instructions for preparing for the consultation.
- Fall 2026 Courses: Beginning August 17th, 2026
- Winter 2027 Courses: Beginning October 19th, 2026
- Spring/Summer 2027 Courses: Beginning March 1st, 2027
- Faculty will complete a brief course overview and intake form before meeting with Faculty Support. This review is intended to help identify high-priority required student-facing materials, Panorama concerns, and items that may need manual review. Faculty are not expected to remediate materials before the meeting.
- During the meeting, Faculty Support and faculty will review the course structure, Panorama information, selected examples, and known areas of concern.
- Log content that needs remediation in a tracking spreadsheet.
- Confirm edits to be made with faculty.
- Complete identified remediations as agreed upon.
- Faculty Support will escalate items to UMSN Digital Accessibility Liaisons or other appropriate support areas when additional guidance, advanced remediation, vendor follow-up, or accessibility expertise is needed.
Primary Goal
The goal of the accessibility review is to identify and address accessibility barriers in required student-facing course materials, aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
The course should be reviewed in the order students will experience it, using the syllabus and course schedule as the guide. This helps prioritize the materials students are interacting with.
Panorama is a valuable supporting tool, but it should not be the only method used to determine what needs remediation.
Phase 1: Learn About Accessibility
Before beginning the course review, faculty are encouraged to review the accessibility resources listed in the "Accessibility Trainings & Documentation Section" above. These resources explain common accessibility issues, how Panorama can help identify concerns, and what types of materials may need remediation.
Faculty are not expected to remediate course materials before meeting with Faculty Support. The purpose of this phase is to become familiar with accessibility concepts and identify challenges in their course to prepare for the meeting.
Phase 2: Prepare for Your Meeting with Faculty Support
Before meeting with Faculty Support, faculty should complete a brief review of their Canvas course to get a general sense of the course’s accessibility status. This is not intended to be a full audit, and faculty are not expected to remediate materials before the meeting.
The goal of this quick review is to help Faculty Support understand:
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How students move through the course
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Which materials students are required to access or complete
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Where accessibility concerns may appear
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Where Panorama icons indicate possible issues
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Which tools, files, links, or activities may need closer review
Faculty should use the syllabus and course schedule as the primary guide and review the course in the order students will experience it. The purpose is to identify patterns and problem areas, not to review every item in detail.
Please complete the following steps in preparation for your Faculty Support meeting. Your assigned Faculty Support team member will reach out to you according to the timeline provided above. At that time, they will also share the intake form so you can provide information that will help make the meeting as focused and productive as possible.
Steps to complete:
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Import or confirm content is loaded into your Canvas course.
Make sure your course content has been imported into the correct Canvas course shell.
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Complete a quick review of your course using your syllabus and course schedule as your guide.
Move through the course in the order students will experience it. Identify required materials, graded activities, and content students need early in the term.
You do not need to fix these issues before the meeting. Instead, note examples or patterns that would be helpful to discuss with Faculty Support. Review Canvas Pages, modules, files, images, videos, links, assignments, discussions, quizzes, and required readings.
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Use Panorama as a guide to identify accessibility concerns. The Panorama icon next to each file or page will indicate the item’s accessibility score. Click the icon and select “View Accessibility Report” to open a detailed view of accessibility issues identified within the file.
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In addition to reviewing Panorama icons, faculty should note any required student-facing materials that Panorama may not fully evaluate. This includes Google Workspace files (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms), quizzes, videos, external tools, publisher content, embedded activities, and linked materials outside Canvas. If you notice these items and are unsure whether they are accessible, make a note to discuss them during the meeting.
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Use TidyUP to identify unused or duplicate content.
TidyUP can help identify outdated, unused, or duplicate files. However, the goal is not to clean up the entire course before the meeting. Use TidyUP only as a supporting tool to understand what content may or may not need review.
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You are not required to remediate materials before meeting with Faculty Support
Instead, bring a few examples of items that may need review, such as files with red or yellow Panorama icons, required PDFs, slides, videos, quizzes, Google files, or external tools. These examples will help Faculty Support better understand the course’s accessibility concerns and recommend next steps.
Your assigned faculty support representative will be reaching out to you to offer assistance with your Canvas course remediation. Please complete the Faculty Support meeting Intake Form before your first meeting with Faculty Support. The information you provide will help us review your course materials efficiently and focus the meeting on the areas where you would like the most support.
Phase 3: Working with Faculty Support
During the Faculty Support meeting, faculty and support staff will review the course structure, Panorama report, syllabus-based notes, and selected examples. Faculty Support will help determine the appropriate next steps for remediation. During the review process, Faculty Support may help identify whether materials should be:
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Remediated
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Replaced with an accessible version
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Converted to a Canvas Page
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Linked through the U-M Library
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Manually reviewed (for items not checked by Panorama)
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Removed (if unused or outdated)
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Referred to another support area
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Documented with an accessibility plan
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Provided in an alternate accessible format
Faculty Support will also assist with remediating files and content.
Phase 4: Detailed Review, Remediation and Tracking
Faculty support will assist with reviewing, remediating, and tracking accessibility work. However, this workflow can also be followed by those that intend to remediate their own course, or want to begin working on a future course.
Remediation Workflow (With Faculty Support or Independently)
This workflow ensures all content students interact with is accessible.
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Review the syllabus and course schedule.
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Move through the Canvas course in the order students will experience it.
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Open each required student-facing item.
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Note the Panorama icon color or accessibility warning.
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Identify whether the item is required, optional, outdated, or unused.
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Follow accessibility guidelines to determine whether to remediate, replace, remove, or document the item.
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Use TidyUP to remove or identify unused or duplicate content, as appropriate.
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Use the Panorama Accessibility Reports to identify additional concerns.
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Track items that aren’t checked by Panorama and items that require additional assistance to remediate.
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Escalate unresolved issues to the UMSN Accessibility Team or other U-M resources as needed.
When possible, required student-facing content should have a green Panorama icon. If an item cannot be made green, document the reason, accessible alternative, or remediation plan. See the instructions at the end of this document for more information.
Tracking Work
Faculty Support will track items requiring remediation. Faculty review prior to making remediations will ensure all remediations are understood and made according to an agreed plan. Before future course offerings, faculty should revisit unresolved items, confirm that accessible alternatives are still available, and add any new required student-facing materials that need remediation or follow-up.
We recommend tracking only items that are not fully scanned by Panorama or that require additional assistance to remediate, replace, or document. Keeping a record of these will help manage accessibility work that falls outside of Canvas/Panorama and provide a clear history of decisions, actions taken, and support needs. It is especially important to track items that require help from an external resource such as third-party content, publisher materials, vendor tools, linked Google Workspace files, media captioning, or library materials.
This tracking can also serve as a record for responding to future barrier reports by showing how accessibility concerns were reviewed, addressed, or routed for additional support.
Use the following Tracking Template (Google Sheets) to assist you in the above tracking process.
What Counts as “Addressed”?
An item does not always need to be fixed in its original form. It can be considered addressed if it has been:
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Remediated
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Replaced with an accessible version
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Converted to a Canvas Page
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Removed because it is unused or not student-facing
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Linked through an accessible U-M Library source
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Marked as optional or supplemental, with an accessible alternative if needed
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Documented with a remediation plan
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Referred to UMSN Accessibility Team, Library Support, vendor support, captioning support, or another appropriate support area
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Provided in an alternate accessible format
Important Note About Panorama
Panorama is very helpful for identifying accessibility concerns and cleaning up unused course content.
Panorama provides accessibility information in two primary ways:
Panorama Accessibility Report
Panorama creates an accessibility report and score for each file and page in the course. Panorama icons indicating accessibility scores appear next to or within course materials as faculty move through Canvas. Click these icons to open the file or page’s Accessibility Report. Faculty should focus primarily on these icons while reviewing the course in the order students will experience it, using the syllabus and course schedule as the guide. These icons are the priority because they are connected to the materials students are most likely to encounter.
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Blue icon with circle: The accessibility report hasn’t been generated yet. Click the icon to generate one.
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Green icon with hexagon: The file or page has minimal accessibility issues. 
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Yellow icon with triangle: The file or page has some accessibility issues. Click the icon to view the full accessibility report. 
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Red icon with pentagon: The file or page has many or major accessibility issues. Click the icon to view the full accessibility report. 
Panorama icons are helpful, but they do not catch every accessibility concern.
Known list of items not scanned by Panorama:
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Google Workspace files (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms)
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Quizzes and question banks
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Videos and audio
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External tools and publisher content
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Embedded content
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Linked PDFs or library/vendor materials
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Access and permission issues
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Quality issues that require human judgment, such as meaningful alt text, clear links, logical headings, reading order, and caption accuracy
These items will need manual review. If accessibility cannot be confirmed, add the item to the tracking sheet and note the review, action taken, alternative provided, or support needed.
Panorama Course Report
The Panorama Accessibility Report provides a broader scan of accessibility issues through the entire course and a total course accessibility score. It can be useful for identifying overall patterns, monitoring progress, and finding additional concerns. However, the report may include files or assets that are outdated, duplicated, unused, or not student-facing. For this reason, the report should be used as a supporting reference rather than the primary guide for remediation.
Sometimes an item may be addressed even if the Panorama icon does not turn green. In those cases, faculty or support staff should document how accessibility was provided.
Scenario 1: Accessible Alternative Provided
The original PDF still has a red Panorama icon, but an accessible Word document or HTML Canvas Page is provided.
Tracking note:
Scenario 2: File Is No Longer Student-Facing
A red PDF remains in Canvas Files but is no longer linked in modules or assignments.
Tracking note:
Scenario 3: Manual Review Confirms Accessibility
Panorama continues to display a warning, but the document was manually reviewed and corrected.
Tracking note:
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Panorama icon remains yellow. Document has been manually reviewed. Headings, reading order, alt text, and link text have been corrected. Source file retained.
Scenario 4: Vendor or Publisher Content
A third-party tool or publisher resource cannot be remediated directly.
Tracking note:
Scenario 5: Remediation Deferred
The item cannot be fixed before the meeting or course start date.
Tracking note:
Required Week 6 PDF needs advanced remediation. Support ticket submitted to Faculty Support. Accessible summary or alternate reading will be provided until a remediated version is available.