Making your Canvas courses both accessible and mobile-ready is extremely important for student success. Students with disabilities make up 12% of the students enrolled in community colleges (American Association of Community Colleges (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.). But creating accessible content doesn't just benefit people with disabilities; it helps all learners. Think of it this way: Elevators allow people unable to use the stairs to reach the different floors in a multi-story building. But does that mean you must be impaired to use the elevator? No. If someone is carrying a lot of items, or they are running late to a meeting on the 25th floor, then the elevator benefits them as well. (From: "Why Accessibility Matters, Accessibility 101: Principles of Accessible Design" by Jess Thompson, Washington State Board for Community & Technical CollegesLinks to an external site.is licensed under CC BY 4.0.Links to an external site.)

Making courses mobile-friendly is also critical because students routinely use mobile devices to complete course work, sometimes as their sole means of interacting with Canvas. Ten percent of all adults do not have broadband at home, but that percentage is higher for under-represented populations who also often have less education and work in lower-income jobs. (From: Pew Research Center, U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..)

Students in your course might be watching a video on their phone, in a quiet place, or on the bus where they can't hear the text so they need captions. Or an ESL student might prefer to listen and read captions at the same time. Or a deaf students might rely completely on captions to understand the video content. All of these students benefit from accessible, mobile-ready content.

See and hear for yourself why it's important for content to be accessible.