Acing the Canvas LMS Accessibility Check: A Professor's Guide to Stress-Free Docs

For many professors, the arrival of Canvas Ally brought a mix of support and stress. Seeing a red or orange dial next to your syllabus or course reading isn't just a notification—it feels like a grade on your work.

In higher education, digital accessibility isn't optional; it's a necessity for student success and legal compliance. But most faculty members are subject matter experts, not accessibility engineers. Inkable Docs was designed to bridge that gap, helping professors create accessible course materials directly from Google Docs.

The "Ally" Anxiety

Canvas Ally automatically scans files uploaded to the LMS and assigns an accessibility score. While well-intentioned, the feedback can be overwhelming. Fixing a "tagged PDF" or "missing heading hierarchy" often requires specialized software like Adobe Acrobat Pro—tools that many faculty find intimidating and time-consuming.

The result? Many documents remain "in the red," creating barriers for students with disabilities and increasing the workload for disability resource centers.

Enter Inkable Docs: Accessible by Design

Inkable Docs turns Google Docs into a powerful accessibility engine. Instead of trying to fix a broken PDF after it's been created, Inkable Docs helps you build accessibility into the document from the start.

1. Instant Accessibility Audits

With one click, Inkable Docs scans your entire Google Doc for common Canvas Ally "deal-breakers." It identifies missing alt text, skipped heading levels, and complex tables that will cause issues later.

2. Fixing Headings in Seconds

Ally often flags PDFs for not having a logical heading structure. Inkable Docs doesn't just tell you there's a problem; it shows you exactly where the hierarchy is broken (e.g., jumping from an H1 to an H3) and lets you fix it with a single click.

3. Table Accessibility Without the Headache

Tables are the number one cause of low Ally scores. Google Docs doesn't make it easy to tag header rows for PDF export. Inkable Docs automatically identifies potential header rows and ensures they are correctly tagged in the final PDF, so screen readers can navigate your data logically.

From Google Docs to Green Dial

The most powerful feature of Inkable Docs is its High-Fidelity PDF Export. When you use Google's native "Download as PDF," it often strips out the accessibility tags you worked so hard to include.

Inkable Docs uses a custom export engine designed specifically for compliance. It preserves every tag, ensures the reading order is correct, and embeds the necessary metadata so that when you upload to Canvas, that Ally dial turns perfect green immediately.