8.9.10 | Check Links & Accessibility

[this may take ~10 minutes]

Canvas provides two helpful automated tools that can help you review your course for fixable errors. Use the 'broken link checker' to check your course for broken links and use the Accessibility Checker for individual pages you've designed for your course.

Find and Fix Broken Links

Your course may include links directing your students to websites, articles, and other resources outside of Canvas. Canvas includes a built-in course link validator that will search both published and unpublished course material looking for broken links and deleted content. 

 

 From the course navigation menu, select Settings and choose the Validate Links in Content from the sidebar.

 Start the validation by clicking the Start Link Validation button.

Canvas will work through your entire course, then return the number of unresponsive links and a detailed list, showing the content item and the invalid link..

 When results appear, the number of broken links is shown at the top. Update links individually by clicking the name of the content item, then finding and updating the link in the content on that page, assignment, etc. 

After working through and fixing links, run Course Link Validation again. When no invalid links are found, a green No broken links found message will be displayed 

 

Using the Accessibility Checker

The accessibility checker looks for and flags common accessibility errors (like captions, headings, numbering, size and color contrast) in Canvas' rich content editor. Use the Accessibility Checker as you are building your content

 

 Select Edit to open the Rich Content Editor. 

Click the Accessibility Checker icon  below the content editor window.

 The Accessibility Checker panel will slide in, showing the number of issues found and details on each issue, allowing you to update items as you work through the items reported.

 Read the description provided for each issue, make updates, then click Apply. Use the Next and Prev buttons to move through and resolve each issue. 

Click Save to save the changes.

Repeat this process for each content item (page, quiz, assignment…). As you work into the future, make this part of your editing process as you create content for your courses.