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Accessibility+ Instructor Accessibility Report
Accessibility+, a tool within D2L Brightspace, supports inclusive and accessible course design. The Accessibility+ tool is available to all Minnesota State D2L Brightspace users at no extra cost to you.
The Accessibility+ Instructor Accessibility Report provides a high-level summary of accessibility scan performed on course digital materials within D2L Brightspace. It identifies compliance issues aligned with WCAG success criteria, ISO specification for PDFs, and offers targeted fixes with recommendations for remediation.
This document explains how to:
Learn more about what Accessibility+ checks in Content and how the score is calculated.
Important: Expected in late March 2026, the Instructor Accessibility Report will include the additional Alternate Formats option to support automated resolution of accessibility barriers, as well as to meet diverse student needs.
Who Is This Guide for?
This guide is intended for instructors to review and improve the accessibility of digital content materials to ensure they are accessible to every student. It provides instructions for using the Accessibility+ Instructor Accessibility Report, leveraging checks and taking the appropriate actions based on the findings.
Access the Accessibility Report for Instructors
- Navigate to the Content tool in a D2L Brightspace course.
- Select a module and select a content topic to load it in Brightspace.
- Once a course resource is opened, an Accessibility+ icon will appear above the resource.
Note: The icon and its color will vary based on if and how many accessibility issues are found in the resource.
- Select the Accessibility icon to open the Accessibility+ dashboard containing the Accessibility Report tab.
Accessibility Report
The Accessibility Report tab on the dashboard features a summary of key findings from the accessibility audit of the selected resource.
The summary includes Score, Checks, Passed, Failed, and Manual details.
The Score is visual representation of the file’s overall accessibility. The score is based on the number of passed and failed criteria, checking against WCAG or ISO compliance levels. It does not include manual checks. Learn more about how the score is calculated.
Checks represents the total number of accessibility criteria evaluated, which varies depending on file type (such as DOCX, PPTX, and PDF).
- Passed: The number of success criteria that are met with the total checks. These checks require no further action.
- Failed: Displays the number of success criteria that the file did not meet during the evaluation. These are issues that need to be addressed to improve accessibility.
- Manual: The number of criteria that require manual review. These issues cannot be automatically validated and should be reviewed and resolved manually.
AutoFix option
For Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, an AutoFix option is available to fix failed accessibility issues.
The AutoFix details:
- What will be fixed.
- The accessibility score of the file's overall accessibility.
- A summary of the number of autofixable accessibility issues out of the number of failed checks.
- The specific Fixable Issues.
To start the AutoFix process, do the following:
- Select AutoFix to review the issues that can be automatically fixed.
- In the Autofix dialog, review details of the fixable accessibility issues and select AutoFix.
- Wait for the Autofixing Issues to update. A "This may take a while depending on your file" will temporarily display.
- Select Apply Changes under the "<number> issue was fixed using AutoFix".
- In the "Overwrite Content" dialog, select Overwrite.
Important: This action replaces the original file for the content topic with a new file in your course files.
- When the process is successful, a banner message displays: "Successfully applied accessibility fixes. Please refresh the page to view your changes."
- Wait for the Accessibility+ dashboard to finish loading.
- Depending on the success of the AutoFix AI engine, the AutoFix Issues may now list "No AutoFix issues".
What AutoFix can remediate
For Word documents (.docx), the AutoFix Issues option can remediate specific accessibility issues.
| Accessibility Issue |
AutoFix Will |
| Text contains repeated non-space characters. |
Remove unnecessary repeated non-space characters |
| Text contains repeated spaces. |
Removed repeated spaces. |
| Font size is smaller than 12pt for regular text, and 18pt for large-scale text. |
Increase font size for regular text to 12pt or for large-scale text to 18pt. |
| The link is missing a meaningful description. |
Add a clear description to the link. |
| Paragraphs that look like headings (bold, big, centered) are not marked as proper headings. |
Mark paragraphs that look like headings (bold, big, centered) as proper headings. |
| Part of the table is marked as a list, or the list numbering is incorrect. |
Remove list styles from table cells and replace multiple tabs in list paragraphs with spaces. |
| Insufficient contrast between foreground text and background. |
Remove highlights or shading and set the text to black. |
| The document contains text that is justified. |
Set the text alignment to 'Align Left'. |
| The document does not have a language set. |
If it can be detected, AutoFix will add the language to the language attribute of the document. |
| Image is missing alt text. |
Add alt text to the image. |
| Non-hyperlink text and references are underlined. |
Remove underline from non-hyperlink text and references. |
| Headings are used incorrectly. |
Correct incorrect use of headings. |
| Numbered headings have an incorrect hierarchy. |
Correct the hierarchy of numbered headings. |
For PowerPoint presentations (.pptx), the AutoFix Issues option can remediate specific accessibility issues.
| Accessibility Issue |
AutoFix Will |
| Text contains repeated non-space characters. |
Remove unnecessary repeated non-space characters. |
| Text contains repeated spaces. |
Remove repeated spaces. |
| Font size is smaller than 12pt for regular text, and 18pt for large-scale text. |
Increase font size for regular text to 12pt or for large-scale text to 18pt. |
| The link is missing a meaningful description. |
Add a clear description to the link. |
| The document does not have a language set. |
If it can be detected, AutoFix will add the language to the language attribute of the document. |
| Image is missing alt text. |
Add alt text to the image. |
| Non-hyperlink text and references are underlined. |
Remove underline from non-hyperlink text and references. |
Checks and Accessibility Details
Each evaluated check appears at the bottom of the report. Select “Expand to view details” to review a full breakdown of the issues.
For each check, details are provided:
- Compliance Level is either A, AA, or AAA with the WCAG version listed (e.g., 2.2) or ISO specification for PDFs
- Reference number for specific guidelines
- Brief explanation of the issue
- Number of times and the location of the issue appears within the file
'How to fix' details
For each check, the How to fix button opens additional details with recommendations for remediation. This includes a description of the issue and steps to fix the issue.
What the Accessibility+ checks for in content
Accessibility+ checks Word documents for:
- Alt text for images and visuals
- Correct document structure - headings, lists, tables, paragraph organization
- Clear and readable text - spacing, fonts, formatting, size
- Sufficient color contrast for text and links
- Navigable content - meaningful links, document title, headings
- Defined document language for screen readers
Accessibility+ checks PowerPoint files for:
- Alt text on images and visual objects
- Transcripts and captions for audio/video
- Clean, readable text - spacing, characters, fonts, underlining
- Proper structure - tables, lists, headings, paragraph clarity
- Logical reading order
- Color contrast & font size standards
- Hyperlink clarity
- Slide titles & metadata
- Language identification for screen readers
Accessibility+ checks PDF documents for:
- Document Metadata & Identification - PDF/UA compliance declarations, titles, language, metadata.
- Tagging & Structure - Correct tag tree, real vs. decorative content, reading order, hierarchical structure.
- Tables - Valid rows / columns, header / body / footer structure, spans, captions, and alignment.
- Lists - Valid list element structure and placement.
- Language Assignment - Language tags for text, metadata, alt text, annotations, bookmarks, form fields.
- Images & Figures - Proper Figure tags and alternative text.
- Headings - Proper heading levels and structural consistency.
- Math - Formula tags with descriptions.
- Notes & Annotations - Correct tagging, unique IDs, descriptions.
- Forms & Links - Proper nesting, labeling, descriptions for form fields and links.
- Media & Embedded Files -Required attributes for media, correct embedding, no external references.
- Fonts & Unicode Mapping- Embedded fonts, correct mappings, valid encodings, no undefined glyphs.
Accessibility+ checks HTML pages for:
Perceivable Content
- Alt text, captions, audio descriptions, long descriptions
- Color contrast and text visibility
- Correct semantic structure (headings, lists, tables)
Operable Interfaces
- Keyboard access, focus order, gesture alternatives
- No flashing, moving, or auto‑updating content without controls
Understandable Information
- Correct labeling, instructions, language markup
- Error messages, consistent navigation, clear link purpose
Robust Code
- Valid ARIA
- Unique IDs
- Name/role/value available to assistive technologies
Understand Accessibility+ Scores and Weighting
Accessibility+ calculates an accessibility score for course content based on WCAG and ISO standards, issue severity, and the types of content in a course. Scores help instructors and institutions understand the accessibility health of their content and track improvements over time.
This topic explains how Accessibility+ evaluates individual assets, calculates course-level scores, and produces institution-level accessibility scores.
Issue Severity
Accessibility+ applies different point values to issues based on WCAG and ISO conformance levels, reflecting the relative importance and impact of each issue:
- Critical severity is assigned 4 points
- High severity is assigned 3 points
- Medium severity is assigned 2 points
- Low severity is assigned 1 point
This weighting ensures that issues with the highest learner impact affect the score more heavily.
How Individual Assets Are Scored
Each content asset in a course—such as an HTML file, PDF, Word document, PowerPoint, video, audio file, link, or other supported resource—is evaluated for accessibility issues.
For every asset, Accessibility+ looks at:
- Test Fails: the number of automated accessibility checks that fail
- Occurrences: the number of times each type of issue appears
- Issue Severity: Critical, High, Medium or Low
- Asset Weight: the relative weight of the asset (currently all assets = 1)
Accessibility+ calculates a score per asset by combining:
- The number of issues
- Their severity weighting
- Their frequency (occurrences)
- The asset’s assigned weight
Currently, all content types are weighted equally, so each asset contributes the same baseline weight to the course score.
Icon Indicators
The icon and its color will vary depending on how many accessibility issues are found in the resource.
Grey: Accessibility score not available. The icon displays as a circle with a stick figure inside.
0–49% Red: Poor / Failing - indicates significant accessibility issues. The icon displays as a circle with a stick figure inside with an 'x' overlapping the circle.
50–74% Yellow: Needs improvement / moderate issues. The icon displays as a circle with a stick figure inside with an exclamation in a triangle overlapping the circle.
75–100% Green: Good / Excellent - indicates the content is largely accessible. The icon displays as a circle with a stick figure inside with checkmark overlapping the circle.