Using Accessibility+ (Faculty)

Summary

Accessibility+ is an add-on for D2L Brightspace that helps us improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of course content. It provides visibility into accessibility issues, offers guided fixes, and supports continuous improvement across courses.

Jump To

What is Accessibility+?
What Accessibility+ Checks For
Viewing the Accessibility+ Report
Using AutoFix
Using the Accessibility+ Dashboard
Understanding Accessibility Scores

Information Applies to

Faculty

What is Accessibility+?

Accessibility+ is an add-on for Brightspace that helps us improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of course content. It provides visibility into accessibility issues, offers guided fixes, and supports continuous improvement across courses.

What Accessibility+ Checks For

Accessibility+ checks Word documents for:

  • Alt text for images and visuals
  • Correct document structure - headings, lists, tables, paragraph organization
  • Clear and readable text - spacing, fonts, formatting, size
  • Sufficient color contrast for text and links
  • Navigable content - meaningful links, document title, headings
  • Defined document language for screen readers

Accessibility+ checks PowerPoint files for:

  • Alt text on images and visual objects
  • Transcripts and captions for audio/video
  • Clean, readable text - spacing, characters, fonts, underlining
  • Proper structure - tables, lists, headings, paragraph clarity
  • Logical reading order
  • Color contrast & font size standards
  • Hyperlink clarity
  • Slide titles & metadata
  • Language identification for screen readers

Accessibility+ checks PDF documents for:

  • Document Metadata & Identification - PDF/UA compliance declarations, titles, language, metadata.
  • Tagging & Structure - Correct tag tree, real vs. decorative content, reading order, hierarchical structure.
  • Tables - Valid rows / columns, header / body / footer structure, spans, captions, and alignment.
  • Lists - Valid list element structure and placement.
  • Language Assignment - Language tags for text, metadata, alt text, annotations, bookmarks, form fields.
  • Images & Figures - Proper Figure tags and alternative text.
  • Headings - Proper heading levels and structural consistency.
  • Math - Formula tags with descriptions.
  • Notes & Annotations - Correct tagging, unique IDs, descriptions.
  • Forms & Links - Proper nesting, labeling, descriptions for form fields and links.
  • Media & Embedded Files -Required attributes for media, correct embedding, no external references.
  • Fonts & Unicode Mapping- Embedded fonts, correct mappings, valid encodings, no undefined glyphs.

Accessibility+ checks HTML pages for:

Perceivable Content

  • Alt text, captions, audio descriptions, long descriptions
  • Color contrast and text visibility
  • Correct semantic structure (headings, lists, tables)

Operable Interfaces

  • Keyboard access, focus order, gesture alternatives
  • No flashing, moving, or auto‑updating content without controls

Understandable Information

  • Correct labeling, instructions, language markup
  • Error messages, consistent navigation, clear link purpose

Robust Code

  • Valid ARIA
  • Unique IDs
  • Name/role/value available to assistive technologies

Viewing the Accessibility+ Report

The Accessibility+ Accessibility Report provides a high-level summary of accessibility checks performed on course files in Brightspace. It highlights issues aligned with WCAG success criteria and offers detailed information instructors can use to improve course accessibility.

To open the Accessibility Report, select the Accessibility+ icon at the top of any file.

Accessibility+ report dashboard

Select the Accessibility Report tab to view a summary of the accessibility evaluation for the selected resource.

The summary includes the following elements:

  • Score: A visual representation of the file’s overall accessibility. The score is based on the number of failed checks, the number of occurrences, and the applicable compliance standard—Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or ISO 14289 (for PDF files).
  • Checks: The total number of accessibility criteria evaluated. This number may vary depending on the file type (for example, DOCX, PPTX, or PDF).
  • Passed: The number of checks that passed. No further action is required for these items.
  • Failed: The number of checks that did not meet accessibility requirements. Review and correct these issues to improve accessibility.
  • Manual: The number of criteria that require manual review. These items cannot be automatically validated and must be evaluated by the instructor.

For each accessibility check, the report provides:

  • Compliance level (A, AA, or AAA)
  • WCAG version or ISO standards (for PDF files)
  • Reference number, linking the issue to a specific WCAG guideline
  • Description of the issue, summarizing what needs to be addressed
  • Number of instances where the issue appears in the file and where they occur

For each issue, a How to Fix option is available with a description and instructions.

Accessibility+ How to Fix

Using AutoFix

For Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, an AutoFix option is available to fix failed accessibility issues. 

The AutoFix details: 

  • What will be fixed. 
  • The accessibility score of the file's overall accessibility. 
  • A summary of the number of autofixable accessibility issues out of the number of failed checks. 
  • The specific Fixable Issues. 

To start the AutoFix process, do the following:

  1. Select AutoFix to review the issues that can be automatically fixed.
  2. In the Autofix dialog, review details of the fixable accessibility issues and select AutoFix. 
  3. Wait for the Autofixing Issues to update. A "This may take a while depending on your file" will temporarily display.
  4. Select Apply Changes under the "<number> issue was fixed using AutoFix".
  5. In the "Overwrite Content" dialog, select Overwrite. 
    1. Important: This action replaces the original file for the content topic with a new file in your course files.
  6. When the process is successful, a banner message displays: "Successfully applied accessibility fixes. Please refresh the page to view your changes."
  7. Wait for the Accessibility+ dashboard to finish loading. 
  8. Depending on the success of the AutoFix AI engine, the AutoFix Issues may now list "No AutoFix issues". 

The AutoFix button under the default AutoFix Issues section

For Word documents:

Accessibility Issue AutoFix Will
Text contains repeated non-space characters. Remove unnecessary repeated non-space characters.
Text contains repeated spaces. Removed repeated spaces.
Font size is smaller than 12pt for regular text, and 18pt for large-scale text. Increase font size for regular text to 12pt or for large-scale text to 18pt.
The link is missing a meaningful description. Add a clear description to the link.
Paragraphs that look like headings (bold, big, centered) are not marked as proper headings. Mark paragraphs that look like headings (bold, big, centered) as proper headings.
Part of the table is marked as a list, or the list numbering is incorrect. Part of the table is marked as a list, or the list numbering is incorrect.
Insufficient contrast between foreground text and background. Remove highlights or shading and set the text to black.
The document contains text that is justified. Set the text alignment to 'Align Left'.
The document does not have a language set. If it can be detected, AutoFix will add the language to the language attribute of the document.
Image is missing alt text. Add alt text to the image.
Non-hyperlink text and references are underlined. Remove underline from non-hyperlink text and references.
Headings are used incorrectly. Correct incorrect use of headings.
Numbered headings have an incorrect hierarchy. Correct the hierarchy of numbered headings.

For PowerPoint presentations:

Accessibility Issue AutoFix Will
Text contains repeated non-space characters. Remove unnecessary repeated non-space characters.
Text contains repeated spaces. Remove repeated spaces.
Font size is smaller than 12pt for regular text, and 18pt for large-scale text. Increase font size for regular text to 12pt or for large-scale text to 18pt.
The link is missing a meaningful description. Add a clear description to the link.
The document does not have a language set. If it can be detected, AutoFix will add the language to the language attribute of the document.
Image is missing alt text. Add alt text to the image.
Non-hyperlink text and references are underlined. Remove underline from non-hyperlink text and references.

Using the Accessibility+ Dashboard

The Accessibility+ Course level dashboard provides instructors with an overall accessibility score for their course and a summary of individual content scores.

  1. Overall Course Score: The overall score is calculated as an average of all scored content items in the course, excluding content with No Score. Note: If the score does not update in the dashboard, simply refresh the page.
  2. Title - the title of the content item. Clicking on the title will open the course content in a new window.
  3. Score - the current accessibility score of the asset. If an item shows No Score, the instructor must click the item title to open it and initiate a scan by selecting the Accessibility+ icon. Once scanned, the instructor can navigate back to the dashboard to view the updated asset and overall course score.
  4. Course Material - describes the type of asset. At present we can can only scan Content, but as additional activities are added to Accessibility+, they will be listed here.
  5. Last Audited - provides the date and time of the last accessibility scan for each asset.
  6. Filter and Search: Instructors are able to filter the content overview by Course Material or by Last Audited Date and can use the search bar to find a specific asset.

Accessibility+ Dashboard

Understanding Accessibility Scores

Accessibility+ calculates an accessibility score for course content based on WCAG and ISO standards, issue severity, and the types of content in a course. Scores help instructors and institutions understand the accessibility health of their content and track improvements over time.

For every asset, Accessibility+ looks at:

  • Test Fails: the number of automated accessibility checks that fail
  • Occurrences: the number of times each type of issue appears
  • Issue Severity: Critical, High, Medium or Low
  • Asset Weight: the relative weight of the asset (currently all assets = 1)

Accessibility+ calculates a score per asset by combining:

  1. The number of issues
  2. Their severity weighting
  3. Their frequency (occurrences)
  4. The asset’s assigned weight

Currently, all content types are weighted equally, so each asset contributes the same baseline weight to the course score.

Icons

Accessibility+ Icons

Grey: Accessibility score not available
0–49% Red: Poor / Failing - indicates significant accessibility issues
50–74% Yellow: Needs improvement / moderate issues
75–100% Green: Good / Excellent - indicates the content is largely accessible

Issue Severity

Accessibility+ applies different point values to issues based on WCAG and ISO conformance levels, reflecting the relative importance and impact of each issue:

  • Critical severity is assigned 4 points
  • High severity is assigned 3 points
  • Medium severity is assigned 2 points
  • Low severity is assigned 1 point

This weighting ensures that issues with the highest learner impact affect the score more heavily.

Learn More

D2L Brightspace Community: Accessibility+

Need additional information or assistance? Contact WSU TLT by email, phone (507.457.5240, option 3), or Zoom.

Print Article