.svg)
F.A.Q. on UDOIT
Common inquires collected from customers about UDOIT, an accessibility assistant for Canvas.
Table of Contents:
General
| Question | Answer |
| How does UDOIT Advantage differ from the open-source version of UDOIT from the University of Central Florida? | Coming soon... |
| Can we test out UDOIT Advantage before we purchase? | Yes, we can arrange to set up a free sandbox for you to test the tool. Please contact sales@cidilabs.com for more information. |
| What type of faculty support is there around training of the UDOIT platform? | As with our other tools, the live training sessions are “train the trainer.” There are training videos, user guides, and other resources that can be shared with your educators and course designers. |
| Who can access UDOIT? | UDOIT is available to all teacher, designer, and admin users in the course. It will never be visible to students. |
| Who is considered UDOIT admin inside a course? | Anyone with a Canvas teacher, designer, or admin role in Canvas can access UDOIT and run it in the course. Those with the student role in the course will never see UDOIT. For more information on the course-level permissions required to access UDOIT, see What are the minimum course permissions for a user to use UDOIT? |
| Will TAs also see UDOIT? | As far as Canvas goes, LTI tools can either be available to everyone or to “Course Admins” or those with course editing rights. Typically, TAs are configured in a way that they would also be able to see this tool. |
| Can UDOIT be renamed on the Canvas course menu? | Yes! Your institution can choose a different name for the Course Menu, if you would like. |
| Is UDOIT available in Catalog? | Yes. Catalog is a storefront that sits in front of a normal Canvas instance. It is a different way to get users enrolled in a course. Once you are in a course, Catalog is the same as any other Canvas instance. |
| Is it possible to customize the text on the UDOIT Welcome page? | Yes! You can customize the Welcome Message in your UDOIT Admin Settings. |
| Do you store our files on your servers? | No. Every alternate file that you generate will be stored inside of your Canvas course, in an "Alternate Files" folder. We never keep your files or data. |
| Are the alternate formats always accurate? Are they more accessible? | The accuracy of the alternative formats will depend on the quality of the original document. The more accessible the original file is the more accurate the alternate format will be, but it will work to create a more accessible format than the original. |
| How does UDOIT define Visual, Auditory, Cognitive, and Motor issues? | You can find a list of the issue types included in each category under the "By Impact Type" section of this page in our UDOIT User Guide. |
| Why is UDOIT currently not a Compliance tool, and is that something it will eventually evolve into? |
UDOIT is meant to be used as a remediation assistant, not a certification tool. It checks for common accessibility issues, and is not comprehensive; a clean report in UDOIT does not necessarily mean that your course is fully accessible. It is unlikely that UDOIT will evolve to become a compliance certification tool because there are many accessibility standards that cannot be checked programmatically. |
Accessibility Scanning
| Question | Answer |
| How often does UDOIT scan my course content? | The first time UDOIT is opened, it will scan all of your course content and files. Each time you click on UDOIT afterwards, it will scan only through content that has been added since the last scan. It is also possible that a scan happens in the background if it is initiated in the UDOIT Admin tool or Cidiscape reporting tool. |
| How many issues does UDOIT Advantage scan for? | UDOIT Advantage currently scans for over 40 potential accessibility issues. For more details, you can visit this Knowledge Base article. |
| Does UDOIT provide the option to turn off certain issues so that they are not included in the scan? | At this time, UDOIT does not provide that option, but it is something we could consider in the future. |
| Does UDOIT also scan the module prerequisites and requirements? | UDOIT scans HTML content and many file types for accessibility concerns, not Canvas settings like prerequisites. |
| Does UDOIT look for broken links? | UDOIT looks for the following accessibility issues that are related to links: “links should contain text,” “broken links detected,” “alt text for images within links should not be empty,” and "link has nondescript text." For links that point to non-existent content, we recommend using the Canvas link validator. |
| Does UDOIT scan quiz question banks? | UDOIT scans the content in the RCE of a quiz. Unfortunately, UDOIT is not able to scan question banks due to the fact that Canvas does not provide API access for those areas. |
| Will UDOIT scan third-party videos if they are directly embedded on a Canvas page, or will it also scan videos if they are presented as URLs/descriptive links? | UDOIT will scan a video for captions if it’s embedded or a link to that video. |
| Will UDOIT account for users accessing Canvas in dark mode (available on mobile devices) when checking color contrast? | If no specific background color is defined, UDOIT's color contrast checker will assume the page background is white. It is not possible for UDOIT to predict whether a course's users are utilizing dark mode or not. |
| Which video platforms can UDOIT check for captions? | UDOIT currently scans YouTube, Vimeo, and Kaltura videos. These media sources give UDOIT the ability to scan for closed caption files, as well as the ability to tell if the closed captions were auto-generated. |
| Does UDOIT scan anything in an iframe? | Browser/web security does not allow programs to scan iframes. This dates back to when hackers could iframe a bank or other website so they could capture user names and passwords. |
| Can UDOIT scan SCORM content that lives within a course using the Canvas SCORM player as an assignment? | Unfortunately, since SCORM content is iframed into a Canvas page, we can’t get access to the content to scan. |
| Can UDOIT differentiate between meaningful images and decorative images? | Unfortunately, as with many accessibility issues, this type of task requires human input. Which images are decorative versus meaningful will change depending on the content of the page and the intent of the designer. UDOIT allows you however to mark an image as decorative as you are reviewing issues around alt tags. |
| Does the tool check the number of characters for alt text? If so, can we set up our own preferred limit? | UDOIT does check the number of characters for alternative text. By default, alt text will be flagged if it’s over 150 characters. You can set your own preferred limit in the UDOIT Admin settings. |
| When UDOIT scans the Canvas page that was created from a PDF, what shows up as an issue? | When a PDF is converted to a Canvas page, UDOIT will then scan the Canvas page to look for all of the issues that it scans Canvas content for. |
| Does UDOIT Advantage support non-romanized languages? | UDOIT primarily looks at the formatting of content and typically not the text itself. Most issues in UDOIT will work with any language. There are a few, however, that are currently English-specific (i.e. non-descript text in a link). |
| Can UDOIT Advantage scan linked Google Docs? | No, but as a workaround, you could download the file from Google, upload it into Canvas, scan and remediate the file, replace the original file on your Google Drive with the remediated one, and use that file moving forward. |
| Can admin users scan all courses or is UDOIT Advantage meant to be used by a designer or the instructor in a single course? | Courses can be batch-scanned with Cidiscape. |
| When you rescan a course, do all of the items marked "Resolved manually" stay marked? | Yes! Once you have marked an item as resolved, it will not appear in the list of Active issues again in the future, unless you uncheck the Resolved box. |
Remediating Content
| Question | Answer |
| Where are the fixes that are done through UDOIT stored? | All of the fixes performed (for example, added or updated alt text, updated colors, and link descriptions) as well as alternate files generated in UDOIT are saved directly to your Canvas instance and therefore yours to keep. As you import your content forward to future semesters, the accessibility improvements are all preserved. |
| Will UDOIT continue to prompt the faculty until a correct response is achieved? | UDOIT will continue to show an issue as Active as long as it has not been fixed or manually marked Resolved. Issues that are marked Resolved can still be viewed in the UFIXIT area as long as the filter is set to show all issues. |
| What happens if the faculty "fixes" something, but it is still incorrect? | If a faculty member fixes an issue using the UFIXIT suggestions, it will generally be correct. If a faculty member manually marks something as resolved, it will be considered resolved and will not appear in this list of Active issues. It's still possible to view all issues that were manually marked as resolved by adjusting the filters in the UFIXIT area. However, since UDOIT provides easy ways to fix the errors and educational information on what needs to be done, it will make it easy for the faculty member to fix it correctly! |
| What if I want to undo a change made to the course through a UDOIT fix? | If you're remediating issues on a Canvas Page, you could always use the Canvas Page History to return to a previous version. And with Files, when you create an alternate format, you still have access to the old document unless you ask UDOIT to delete it. |
Remediating Files
| Question | Answer |
| Can UDOIT convert a PDF into an accessible Canvas Page? |
Yes! UDOIT can convert a PDF document into a Canvas page within your course. This will make it more accessible, but the page will still benefit from a cleanup (such as adding headings, style, alt text for images, etc). |
| Can you request a Canvas page to be created as an alternative version of the PDF instead of fully replacing the original? Or would you have to re-upload the original again for both to be available? |
Yes - you can simply request that a Canvas page be created without it replacing the PDF file. |
| How accurate is the conversion of a PDF to a Canvas page? |
The accuracy of the conversion depends on how accessible the original file is. If the original file was fairly accessible then the new Canvas page created by UDOIT Advantage would have similar accessibility. However, if the original file skipped heading levels for example, that error would also show up in the converted page. With inaccessible files that were originally scanned from a flatbed scanner without Optical Character Recognition (OCR), UDOIT Advantage uses technology from one of the premier accessibility partners to provide excellent OCR scanning and create a document with readable text. This makes the file vastly more accessible than it was originally, but it would still benefit from human attention to ensure optimal accuracy and accessibility. Remaining accessibility issues on the Canvas Page could then be detected in subsequent UDOIT scans and fixed using the built-in remediation features. |
| Does UDOIT Advantage make a new copy of an alternative file format for each student who requests that file type? |
No. UDOIT Advantage keeps track of which files have already been requested and created. When an additional student requests the same file format, UDOIT Advantage will direct them to the previously created file, ensuring speedier service for your students, a less-cluttered Files area, and optimal usage of storage space in your Canvas course. |
| Will the additional files generated by UDOIT Advantage count towards my course storage space? |
They will, but it's good to know that UDOIT Advantage creates only one file for each alternative format requested, not for each student who makes the request. And since Canvas is usually rather generous with storage allowances, clients who are planning to adopt UDOIT Advantage may want to consider increasing the default storage amount for all their newly created courses. This could proactively prevent issues where faculty might hit their course storage limits. |
| Can students choose alternative file formats that best suit their needs? |
Yes! UDOIT’s optional Student Access feature enables students to request and download alternate formats right from where the file appears in their course. |
| Can students access the alternate files without the faculty doing anything? Or does the faculty have to generate them first and then add them to the page? |
Yes! If your institution chooses to enable Student Access, students will be able to request alternate formats that suit their needs. |
| Do we have to generate each alternate file format individually? Is there a way to automatically provide all alternate formats for any item, without manual intervention? |
The Student Access feature allows you to enable students to generate alternate formats that meet their individual needs. Once an alternate format is generated, everyone in the course can access it if this feature is enabled. |
| If the same file is linked in multiple places, does it show up multiple times in the large list of issues or will all those locations be linked under the same issue? |
UDOIT will only show each file once in the "Review Course Files" area, regardless of how many locations in the course are linking to that file. |
| In the Files section, how do I know what is an original upload, and which is “optimized”? |
Every file that UDOIT Advantage creates is stored in an "Alternate Files" folder inside of Canvas Files. |
| Is there a version history for the older versions of files that are replaced? |
The original files that are replaced remain in the course Files area, unless the user elects to have the file deleted in the replacement process. All alternate format files are stored in a folder that UDOIT creates and labels as such, so it is possible to tell the difference. |
| Can UDOIT Advantage fix flatbed scans of book pages? |
Yes! UDOIT Advantage integrates with one of the premier accessibility partners, ABBYY FineReader, to provide an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scan of your flatbed scanned text documents. |
| Does UDOIT convert Doc files to Docx? Would one need access to Word on the device (if an instructor uses a Chromebook)? |
UDOIT lets you know that the Doc file is an older format, but it doesn’t create the new Docx format for you. You would need to do that on your local computer and then UDOIT makes it easy to upload and replace that new version. |
| Does Word Doc to Canvas page file conversion strip problematic Word Doc code (i.e., formatting, etc.) prior to creating the page? |
Yes. When Word documents are converted, they do not have the problematic HTML code added by Word when it creates HTML. The HTML is created by ABBYY Finereader, not Microsoft Word. |
| When replacing a file with a more accessible file (alternate format), does it automatically replace the link to the file in other pages and in modules? |
Yes! After the conversion of the file to a Canvas Page, when you select the button to "Replace file with page," UDOIT will replace every instance where that file was linked, in Canvas content and in Modules. |
| What software does UDOIT Advantage use for OCR? |
ABBYY FineReader. |
| Can the files reside in a Dropbox or Google Drive folder? Or do they have to be inside Canvas? |
They must reside inside Canvas at this time. You could certainly upload files to Canvas, request alternate file formats, and then download copies of the alternate files to upload to your DropBox or Google Drive folders. |
Reporting
| Question | Answer |
| Can admin reports be exported? | Yes! The data that appears in the UDOIT Admin Reports can be exported to a CSV. |
|
Is it possible for the admin dashboard to feed into a customized Power BI dashboard? |
UDOIT Reporting APIs are on our roadmap for 2026. |