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Using Alternative Formats in your Canvas Course

by Whitney Lewis

Alternative Formats converts documents and images to other formats. It’s a way to give your students different content options to meet their needs.

For example, content can be converted to Braille, MP3, Word, and PDF to name a few.

For more Canvas resources, check out:

Important notes

Alternative Formats is not for making content accessible. If an inaccessible Word Document is converted to a PDF, it is most likely now an inaccessible PDF.

Alternative Formats is an add-on product to Pope Tech’s Canvas Accessibility Guide and Dashboard. If you don’t have the Alternative Formats option, contact your Canvas Pope Tech Admin to discuss the feature add-on.

How to access Alternative Formats

You can access Alternative Formats from any page or file by selecting the Alternative Formats icon.

Your students also have the Alternative Formats icon in the same places, so they can use the feature too.

Files

In the files list, the Alternative Formats icon is in the last column for each file.

Pages

In the pages list, the Alternative Formats icon is in the last column for each page.

Alternative Formats is also available next to the page title when viewing the page.

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How to use Alternative Formats

Follow these steps to use Alternative Formats:

  1. Select the Alternative Formats icon in the Files list, Page list, or from the top of the Page view.
  2. If you’re selecting a page, select a file on that page or the entire page content from the File dropdown. There is no file dropdown if you select a file from the Files list.
  3. Select the Conversion Type.
  4. Adjust the Conversion Parameters for that file type. These are different depending on the conversion type. Review the linked guides for more information on the parameters for the different types:
  5. Select Download or Email to me.

If possible, check the file after converting to make sure it converted properly and is accessible.

Going from an image to a Word document

If you’re going from an image to a Word document and experience formatting issues, try going from an image to a tagged PDF document. Then, copy and paste from the PDF document to a Word document.

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Use cases for remediating inaccessible documents

Alternative Formats doesn’t make your documents accessible, but it can help you start the remediation process.

Converting an image that’s text

Scanning a book or document can create an image file with text. Sometimes, PDF files can even be images with text. Visual learners can read the text but assistive technology users can’t access the text in the image making it inaccessible.

To start the remediation process, use Alternative Formats to convert the image with text to a tagged PDF. From there, check and fix any accessibility issues in the PDF.

PDF or Word Doc to HTML

PDFs and Word documents often aren’t as accessible or as easy to make accessible as a Canvas content page.

Use Alternative Formats to convert a PDF or Word document to an HTML document. Next, copy and paste the HTML into your Canvas page’s HTML editor. This gives you the start of your content from the PDF or Word document.

Then, use the Canvas editor and Pope Tech’s Accessibility Guide to continue adjusting the page.

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Student instructions to include in your Canvas course

The Alternative Formats icon is also available for students. Students with varying disabilities can use it to get content in formats best for them. Remember, it’s important your content starts accessible, so it converts properly.

Here is a blurb and instructions you can paste into your Canvas course or syllabus for students:

In this course, you can convert files and pages to different formats. For example, content can be converted to Braille, MP3, Word, and PDF.

Follow these steps to access and use Alternative Formats:

  1. Select the Alternative Formats icon in the Files list, Page list, or from the top of the Page view.
  2. If you’re selecting a page, select a file on that page or the entire page content from the File dropdown. There is no file dropdown if you select a file from the Files list.
  3. Select the Conversion Type.
  4. Adjust the Conversion Parameters for that file type. These are different depending on the conversion type. Review the linked guides for more information on the parameters for the different types:
  5. Select Download or Email to me.

Back to top