Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT)

UDOIT Logo

Are you UCF faculty or staff? Please visit our UCF-focused UDOIT information page.

What is UDOIT?

The Universal Design Online [content] Inspection Tool (UDOIT) helps faculty discover and repair accessibility issues in their online courses in the Canvas by Instructure LMS. UDOIT (pronounced, “You do it,”) scans their online course content, identifies possible accessibility issues, and guides faculty through the process of repairing the issues using Universal Design principles. It’s free and open source, and is currently used by over 50 institutions worldwide.

UDOIT will check the following areas of a course:

  • Announcements
  • Assignments
  • Discussions
  • Files (i.e., .html files)
  • Pages
  • Syllabus
  • Module URLs

Here are some of the things that UDOIT looks for:

  • Use of headings in page structure
  • Alternative text for images
  • Table headers
  • Color contrast
  • Video captions

Additionally, the included U FIX IT tool allows faculty to repair issues from within UDOIT with an easy-to-use user-interface.

UDOIT is traditionally installed on your own web server, but we have also provided the ability to install to Heroku. See the instructions in the GitHub project for more information. Keep in mind that you will need someone knowledgeable in server administration if you elect to host it on your own web server.

See UDOIT in Action

Contact Us

Please check the FAQs below for more information. To learn more about how to implement UDOIT at your Canvas institution, please contact Jacob Bates, Lead Developer of UDOIT, at Jacob.Bates@ucf.edu. For guidance, as to how online accessibility coordinators and faculty can incorporate the use of UDOIT to improve student access to online course content, please contact Karen Tinsley-Kim, Instructional Development Specialist, at Karen.Tinsley-Kim@ucf.edu.

FAQs

Is it really free?

Yes! UDOIT is available under the GPLv3 license. It is free to use and modify as long as any changes are re-released back to the public under the same license.

What LMS platforms are supported?

Currently, only Canvas by Instructure is supported. However, there are other products available for other LMS platforms. For example:

Do you have tips on promoting UDOIT to our faculty?

Every institution is different, so it’s difficult to make suggestions. You are invited to take a look at our faculty information page and our accessibility resources for some inspiration. At UCF, we hold semesterly workshops, promote it during consultations with faculty, and include UDOIT training in our faculty development courses. UDOIT continues to benefit from many Canvas Community and Canvas Commons contributions including the UDOIT User Guide created by Michelle Tuten at Clemson. For general questions about best practices, you can ask the Accessibility Group on the Canvas Community.

Will UDOIT fix all of the accessibility issues automatically?

Unfortunately, not at this time. Many accessibility issues require context for remediation, but some of the simpler ones could be fixed automatically in the future. In the meantime, we have included the U FIX IT tool to allow faculty to address issues with a simple interface from within UDOIT.

How do I install it?

UDOIT is traditionally installed on your own web server, but we have also provided the ability to install to Heroku. See the instructions in the GitHub project for more information. Keep in mind that you will need someone knowledgeable in server administration if you elect to host it on your own web server.

Is there a demo version?

There is no demo version available, but we recommend doing a Heroku installation for evaluation purposes.

Will you provide support?

Unfortunately, we can’t provide dedicated support for UDOIT. For general questions about best practices, you can ask the Accessibility Group on the Canvas Community. The group has been very active and will usually answer your question within a few days. If you experience issues with the installation process or your users report bugs, you can report it on the Issues Page, and we’ll do our best to help when we can.

How often do you release updates?

UDOIT is updated as needed based on feedback from users. We will release minor updates as bugs are fixed and major updates when we complete new features. All updates are voluntary, and they can be applied at your convenience.

Can you add feature "X" to UDOIT?

New feature requests should be requested on the Issues Page. Since this is an open source project, be prepared to devote some of your own development time to implementing any features you request. If you would like to recruit other developers or drum up support for your feature request, ask the Accessibility Group on the Canvas Community.

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