Canvas Tools – Ally, TidyUp, UDoIT

TidyUp — File Cleanup Tool

TidyUp is an invaluable tool to use for the first step in improving the accessibility of Canvas courses: removing non-current content. TidyUp allows you to:

  • Find and delete unused files and folders.
  • Find where files are linked in a course.
  • View a detailed list of everything present in a course.

How to Use TidyUp

  1. Navigate to the Settings menu at the bottom of the course menu:Click on Settings at the bottom of the Canvas course menu
  2. Click on the Navigation tab in the Settings menu:Navigation tab
  3. Scroll down to find TidyUp in the disabled items. Click on the 3-dots menu next to TidyUp and select Enable.
    3-dots menu to enable TidyUp
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button.
    Save button
  1. Click on TidyUp in the course navigation menu.
    TidyUp in the course menu
  2. Click on the Scan Course button.
    Scan course button on TidyUp welcome screen

Once the scan is complete, filter the results by changing the Show dropdown menu. If you are removing obsolete files, filter by Unused Files.

Show Unused Files in dropdown menu

In the resulting list of unused files, you can delete one at a time using the trash icon next to the file.  You can also use the checkboxes to select multiple files at once. Use the Download Selected button to make a backup before using the Delete Selected button to remove the files.

Note: If you have files in question banks, use caution. TidyUp does not have access to scan these files. They may actually be in use. 

Download then delete selected files

Anthology Ally - Accessibility Remediation Tool

Anthology Ally is a Canvas plugin that allows you to check for accessibility within an entire Canvas course and guides you through fixing problems. It can scan the course shell and documents uploaded into the course.

All PDFs uploaded to Canvas meet Universal Design Goals without additional steps, unless the PDF is a poor quality scan — Ally’s Alternative Formats allow students to download more accessible versions of scanned PDFs and convert documents into a format that works for them. This makes Anthology Ally a great Universal Design tool for both instructors and students.

See the Anthology Ally playlist on LinkedIn Learning for video overviews of Ally’s functions. 

How to Use Anthology Ally

Ally uses dials for low, medium and high-scoring content.

low, medium and high scoring content gauges

Although you will see a score for your course, our primary purpose as a campus is to focus on Universal Design Goals from the Electronic Accessibility Rubric. Following the rubric may not result in a perfect score in Ally. For example, Ally will provide the minimum needed for a scanned PDF, but the score will not improve.

Instructor feedback is available directly within the course pages. Each type of content checked by Ally has an accessibility gauge next to it.  Hovering over the icon will tell you the score, and clicking on it will take you to the detail page for fixing that content.

Accessibility icon next to a PDF with a low score
Video: Instructor Feedback

You can also view and fix issues course-wide via the course report in course navigation. Select Ally Course Accessibility Report in the course menu:

Select Ally Course Accessibility Report in course menu

This brings up the dashboard view for the course. The pie chart shows all of the types of course content. The next sections show content with the easiest issues to fix as well as low-scoring content. These are easy ways to make the greatest impact in the course.

Dashboard view
Video: Course Report

Your Ally score may be affected by a number of files that have been copied over from semester to semester but are no longer actually in use in the course.

Before fixing potentially obsolete files in Ally, use TidyUp to remove unused files. This will increase your overall course score, as older files are likely to be less accessible.

UDOIT Advantage - Legacy Tool

UDOIT Advantage is a legacy plugin predating Anthology Ally. While UDOIT is still available, Ally is the new recommendation.

UDOIT is a Canvas plugin that allows you to check for accessibility within a Canvas course and prompts you with instructions on fixing problems. It can scan the course shell and documents uploaded into the course, including recognizing text in scanned PDFs.

How to Use UDOIT

Click on the UDOIT Cloud 3.0 link in your course navigation. This automatically starts a course scan.

UDOIT Cloud 3.0 in the course navigation

The top priority issue in UDOIT is fixing image-only PDF files. View the video tutorial or scroll down for the written version on using UDOIT to recognize text in PDFs.

Video: Fixing Scanned PDFs in UDOIT

Written Tutorial

To recognize the text within PDFs in Canvas:

  1. Click on the “Review Files” tab in UDOIT.
    Review Files tab on UDOIT page
  2. Click the “Scan Now” button to make sure all files have been scanned.
  3. If you have a lot of files, filter the results to see the top priority PDF files that need to be fixed.  Click on the “Filter” button.
    Use the Filter button to narrow selection of files
    • Select “PDF” under file type, and/or “Scanned File” under Issues.
      In the filter window, select "PDF" for file type and "Scanned File" for Issues
  4. Click the “Review” button to fix an individual file.
    Scan Now button first, then Review button next to the PDF
  5. Under Alternate Formats, select “Request” next to Auto Tagged PDF.
    • It may take a while to convert the file. You can close this window and it will continue converting the file. Just remember to go back and replace the original once it’s completed (click on Review again).
    • Note that you can also convert to other formats, including html, ePub, and mp3. You can provide multiple ways to access the content by linking these in your course.
    • For someone who needs fully accessible PDFs, the auto tagged PDF will not be sufficient. The tags will need to be edited. However, either html or ePub may work well for them and save this extra step.
      Request auto tagged PDF
  6. Once the conversion is complete, select “Replace file with an auto tagged PDF” under File Actions. This will open a preview window.
    Replace file with an auto tagged PDF
  7. At this point, you can download a copy to distribute outside of Canvas and use in other courses.
  8. Select “Replace File” to automatically update the file within your course to the more accessible format.
    Download button and Replace File button
  9. You will receive a confirmation that the file has been replaced.
    Confirmation message that links have been replaced with auto tagged PDF

UDOIT can also help you fix issues within the course itself. The summary page lists issues outside of uploaded files. You can filter these under Ways to Get Started. The default filter is “Easiest to fix.”

UDOIT Summary

Click on the UFIXIT tab to resolve the issues. When you select Review next to an item, a pop-up window will open explaining the problem. Many issues can be fixed directly from within this window.

UFIXIT Tab with list of errors
  1. On the UFIXIT tab, click on Review to fix a nondescriptive link. U FIXIT Issue: Link has nondescript text
  2. In the pop-up window, write your descriptive link text in the New Link Text box and save. UFIXIT window with text box for New Link Text

In this example, the text has insufficient contrast with the background.

  1. On the UFIXIT tab, click on Review next to the error. UFIXIT Issue: Insufficient text color contrast with the background
  2. In the contrast error window, you have the option to increase the contrast of the existing color or use a color picker to choose a new color.
  3. To increase the contrast of the existing color, click on the up or down arrow next to the background color or text color. Watch the Contrast Ratio output to see when the contrast becomes sufficient. Save the new colors.
Contrast ratio up and down arrows

In this example, the alternative text of an image is the filename instead of descriptive alternative text.

  1. On the UFIXIT tab, click on Review next to the error.UFIXIT Issue: Alternative text should not be the image filename
  2. The preview shows you which image has the problem.
  3. Type your descriptive alternative text in the New Alt Text box and save.
UFIXIT window with New alt text box

UDOIT can detect whether videos linked from YouTube have edited captions or if they only have auto-captions, which should be checked for accuracy.

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