Accessibility Reporting Matrix for Canvas at Boise State University

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the types of Accessibility Reporting that are available for Boise State Canvas Courses. The tables below highlight what each report can do and identify examples of how different roles might leverage a certain report to promote Accessible classroom content.

Quick Summary of Accessibility Reports

Course Accessibility Report (Ally)

Presents a score from 0–100% indicating overall accessibility.
Shows separate lists: easiest fixes, lowest scoring content, content sorted by issue type.
Great starting point for deciding what to fix first.

📌 Example: A department chair runs an accessibility report for an online course and sees that 40% of PDFs lack tags; they schedule a mini-workshop for faculty on tagging PDFs.

In-Page Accessibility Checker (RCE)

Not a “report” in the downloadable sense; instead, it flags issues right when editing.
Ideal for preventing new issues as content is being created.

📌 Example: While editing a Canvas Page, faculty see warning icons next to images without alt text and fix them immediately.

Course Scan Report (UDOIT)

UDOIT focuses on published course content and provides a list of barriers with suggestions.
Some implementations show counts of errors fixed vs. not fixed for progress tracking.

📌 Example: Instructor runs UDOIT at the start of the semester, exports the scan results, and shares them with an instructional designer to coordinate fixes before students begin.

TidyUP Cleanup Report

Not specifically an accessibility barrier report, but a file organization report that makes accessibility work easier because there’s less clutter to scan and fix.

📌 Example: Before running Ally or UDOIT, a faculty member uses TidyUP to delete 50 unused files, reducing the number of items to scan and fix in Ally.

More Narrative Examples

Scenario 1 — Faculty

A faculty member opens the Ally Course Accessibility Report and sees a low overall score because most PDFs lack alt text. They focus first on high-impact items, which quickly raises the course score and improves student experience.

Scenario 2 — Instructional Designer

The instructional designer runs UDOIT for five courses and notices repeated captioning issues in one department’s media files. They organize a targeted workshop to help that department improve captioning practices.

Scenario 3 — Course Cleanup

Before running accessibility scans, a designer uses TidyUP to remove 120 unused files and outdated modules, making the Ally and UDOIT reports more accurate and easier to act upon.

Who Typically Uses Each Report?

Role	Most Relevant Report(s)

Role	Most Relevant Report(s)
Faculty / Course Designers	Ally Course Report, UDOIT Scan Report, RCE Warnings
Deans and Head of Departments
Instructional Designers / Support Staff	UDOIT Scan Report, Ally Report (for prioritization), RCE Checks
Course Coordinators / Accessibility Teams	UDOIT Progress Counts, Ally Course Scores across many courses
Content Clean-Up Specialists	TidyUP Reports before accessibility scanning

Detailed Summary of Accessibility Reports

Tool	Report / Output	Description of Report	Most Useful For	Example Use Cases

Tool	Report / Output	Description of Report	Most Useful For	Example Use Cases
Anthology Ally	Course Accessibility Report	A course-level summary showing an overall accessibility score plus a breakdown of individual content items and how accessible they are. Includes prioritized issue lists (easiest fixes first, lowest scoring content) and detailed guidance on how to fix specific problems.	Faculty / Course Designers	Instructor uses the report to decide which files to fix first based on severity (e.g., PDFs with missing tags get attention before image alt text). Departments track the accessibility scores of required courses to report on compliance.
	Item-Level Scores & Descriptions	Instead of only an overall score, Ally provides individual scores for items (documents, images, pages), showing what kind of issue exists and how severe it is.	Faculty / Instructional Designers	Designer sees that multiple large PDFs score low because they lack proper heading structures — and starts remediation there.
Canvas Accessibility Checker (RCE)	In-Page Accessibility Warnings	Real-time feedback while editing a page (warnings about missing alt text, poor table structure, etc.). It doesn’t create a downloadable “report,” but shows issue details as you work.	Faculty / Designers editing content	Instructor editing a module gets instant alerts about missing alt text and fixes while editing. Editing quizzes or discussions highlights structural issues before publishing.
UTOIT (Cidi Labs)	Course Accessibility Scan Report	UDOIT’s main output is a course-wide scan of published content (announcements, pages, assignments, discussions, modules) that lists errors found and provides remediation suggestions. It groups issues by type and often shows counts of errors found vs. fixed.	Faculty / Designers	Instructor runs the scan and shares with a curriculum developer to fix remaining accessibility errors. Faculty use the report to plan a “course makeover” over the summer based on issues identified by UDOIT.
	Error / Fix Counts & Details	The report often includes number of barriers identified, how many have been fixed, and what remains — making it easy to see progress over time.	Course Coordinators / Accessibility Teams	Coordinators compare scans across sections to identify instructors who may need additional support.
TidyUP (Cidi Labs)	Unused / Orphaned Content Report	Lists unused files, duplicated files, and orphaned items that aren’t linked anywhere in the course and may not need accessibility remediation — but may clutter content and lower accessibility scores indirectly.	Faculty / Designers	Instructor cleans up unused PowerPoints before running Ally or UDOIT so the accessibility scan is focused only on relevant content. Designers use the unused file report before a course copy to remove old drafts.