Common inquires collected from customers about UDOIT, an accessibility assistant for Canvas.
Table of Contents:
General Questions- All Products
Features and Functionality- UDOIT Advantage
Features and Functionality- UDOIT Essential (formerly UDOIT Cloud)
General Questions- All Products
| Question | Answer |
| Is there a document that compares what UDOIT open source, UDOIT Essential, and UDOIT Advantage so we can determine the needs for our school? | Yes. It is currently on our website: https://cidilabs.com/landing/udoit-accessibility-tool/ |
| We have UDOIT Cloud. Is UDOIT Advantage an update? Does the update get pushed out? | UDOIT Cloud is now referred to as UDOIT Essential. UDOIT Advantage requires an additional license, so will not be automatically pushed out until or unless your institution decides to adopt it. |
| Will the UDOIT Advantage add a cost to UDOIT Cloud institutions? | A UDOIT Advantage license is approximately 25% more than UDOIT Essential (formerly UDOIT Cloud). If you are interested in upgrading to UDOIT Advantage, please reach out to sales @cidilabs to discuss specific pricing for your institution. |
| Is UDOIT available in Catalog? | Yes. Catalog is a store front 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. |
| Do you store my 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. |
| Will TAs also see this tool? | 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. |
| 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. |
| What type of faculty support is there around training of the UDOIT platform? Is it more of a "train the trainer" situation, or are there video/ web guides to help get our faculty up to speed? | As with our other tools, the training sessions are “train the trainer” — we record that session and share it with you to help you train your users. There are user guides and other resources that we'll share with you, that can be shared with your educators and course designers. |
| Can the tool also show how many times a video or course materials have been accessed by students? | Not yet. That may be included as part of the enhanced reporting features, as those are added over time. |
| Is there any support for languages other than English (checking, not interface)? | Not at this time. |
| 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 an accessible format that is more accessible than the original. |
| 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. |
| 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: https://cidilabs.instructure.com/courses/6621/pages/udoit-home-page |
| Do you use OpenAI? | No, UDOIT does not use OpenAI. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Is there the ability to add ARIA instructions to a page? | No, UDOIT does not help to add ARIA instructions. |
| Who can access UDOIT? | UDOIT is available to all teacher, designer, and admin users in the course. It will never be visible to students. |
| Is it possible to customize the text on the UDOIT Welcome page? | Yes! You can send your customized welcome page verbiage to support@cidilabs.com and we will be happy to update the page. |
| 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 guide, not a certification. It only 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. |
Features and Functionality- UDOIT Advantage
| Question | Answer |
| How does UDOIT Advantage differ from the open-source version of UDOIT from the University of Central Florida? | A chart comparing the various UDOIT offerings is available at https://cidilabs.com/landing/udoit-accessibility-tool/. |
| Are we able to test out Advantage before we purchase? | Yes, of course. We have the Advantage tool installed in our free sandbox. You may request a sandbox by emailing: sales@cidilabs.com |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| How accurate is the conversion? | 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. |
| Can UDOIT Advantage fix flatbed scans of book pages? | Yes! UDOIT Advantage integrates with one of the premier accessibility partners, Abby Fine Reader, to provide an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scan of your flatbed scanned text documents. |
| 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 formats of files that best suit their needs? | The ability for students to request their own alternate format files in the course is on the roadmap and is under development now. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Until students can request their own alternate formats, faculty can generate them and make them available with the content, correct? | Yes, that is correct! Once the alternative format is created, educators/designers would just need to provide a link to that new format within the course. |
| 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. |
| 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? | At this time, you do need to request each file format individually. In the future, we plan to add functionality for students to request their own alternate formats, which could make the process simpler for the educators and course designers. |
| 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? | In the current version, educators will need to generate alternate formats and replace or add to the originals throughout the course (either manually or with UDOIT), before the students will be able to access them. We are working on the ability for students to request their own alternate file formats. |
| Does Word Doc to Canvas page file conversion, strip problematic Word Doc code (IE 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. |
| 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 clean up (such as adding headings, style, alt text for images, etc). |
| 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. |
| 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 Files" area, regardless of how many locations in the course are linking to that file. |
Features and Functionality- UDOIT Essential (formerly
Cloud)
| Question | Answer |
| We have UDOIT Cloud. Is UDOIT Advantage an update? Does the update get pushed out? | UDOIT Cloud is now referred to as UDOIT Essential. UDOIT Advantage requires an additional license, so will not be automatically pushed out until or unless your institution decides to adopt it. |
| Will the UDOIT Advantage add a cost to UDOIT Cloud institutions? | A UDOIT Advantage license is approximately 25% more than UDOIT Essential (formerly UDOIT Cloud). If you are interested in upgrading to UDOIT Advantage, please reach out to sales @cidilabs to discuss specific pricing for your institution. |
| What happened to the version number on the landing page? | Our Cidi Labs UDOIT version numbers no longer match up with the open source version numbers. Therefore, we removed the version number from the landing page to avoid any confusion. If you'd like to know our current version, you can visit our Release Notes at: https://cidilabs.instructure.com/courses/6621/pages/udoit-release-notes |
Scanning- All Products
| Question | Answer |
| 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. |
| Canvas Checker scans for 7(ish) issues. Pope Tech scans for 37. Exactly how many issues does Advantage for? | UDOIT Advantage currently scans for over 40 potential accessibility issues, and Cidi Labs will continue adding to that list as we improve the tool. |
| Does UDOIT scan quiz question banks? | 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 the tool have the ability to access shadow DOM’s? | No |
| Does Cidi Labs plan to add the ability to scan closed captions in Canvas Studio, Panopto, or MediaSite videos? | Cidi Labs hopes to expand the list of video platforms that UDOIT is able to scan for captions in the future, where APIs are available to do so. That said, it’s very easy to use UDOIT to scan through all videos in your course. Just filter by the “no closed caption found” error. You can then check through each video quickly, in a linear manner. Each video will show up in the preview window, and you can click to play it. If it shows closed captions in the preview, you can mark it as resolved, and it will not appear in future scans. |
| Does UDOIT scan anything that exists in Canvas as LTI? | Unfortunately, UDOIT is not able to scan content that exists in Canvas as an LTI. |
| Does it 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 this 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 your tools 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. Alt text will be flagged if it’s over 150 characters. We do not offer the ability to customize this number. |
| 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. |
Remediation- All Products
| Question | Answer |
| 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. |
| What if I want to back out 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. |
| Will it 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 the 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! |
Reporting- All Products
| 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? | Not at this time, but perhaps in the future. |
Roadmap
| Question | Answer |
| Is your roadmap publicly available to view? | Cidi Labs does not publish an official roadmap, as we continuously update our product plans based on customer needs and feedback. |
| Has there been any internal discussion about integrating AI technology to evaluate and remediate html issues? | Yes, we are looking into the possibilities. |
| Will you be providing an API at some point to pull that reporting automatically? | UDOIT will not likely have an API to access reporting. However, CidiScape may have an API to access UDOIT data in the future. |
| Could this technology be used to create a general "Search & Replace" feature for a course? | That's an interesting idea, but not something we have considered to date. |
| Would you consider adding a feature that converts existing captions to a transcript and adding a link to that transcript below the video? |
Cidi Labs welcomes all feedback, and this is something we may consider down the road.
|
| Is there a plan in the future road map to add auto-captioning for third party or Kaltura videos? | We’re considering how to add captioning features, but that capability is still only in the planning stages, so it might be a while before we incorporate auto-captioning. |
| Can admin users scan all courses or is UDOIT Advantage meant to be used by a designer or the instructor in a single course? | Admin scanning of course batches is on the roadmap and coming soon. |
| Do you have any plans to add electronic Braille anytime soon? | We do not have definite plans yet, but we’ve had discussions with a partner who can help us provide Braille. |
| What parts of the UDOIT Roadmap will only apply to Advantage as opposed to being available in Essentials and Advantage? | Cidi Labs will continue to add value to both UDOIT Essential and Advantage. The features on the roadmap that pertain to file scanning and remediation will be specific to Advantage. The advanced reporting and account level scanning functionality will be available for both. |
| Do you plan to add accessibility scoring to UDOIT? | UDOIT does not currently provide an accessibility score for courses, but this is something we are considering for the future. |