How to Check and Improve Accessibility in Canva Designs

General guide for checking accessibility in Canva and preparing for embedding and/or export to comply with WCAG AA guidelines.

Andrea Beaudin
27 steps
2 minutes

Canva

Navigate to your Canva editor

Click "File"

"File" selected in upper left corner of Canva web page

Click "Accessibility"

Canva "file" menu open showing the accessibility submenu

Click "Check design accessibility"

Canva accessibility submenu expanded, showing "Check Design Accessibility"

Evaluating and Fixing Color Contrast Issues

The accessibility checker will identify any errors. (Note: Sometimes this lags in the notification).\ In this example, two color contrast issues have been identified. To learn more and fix, click "Color contrast"

Design Accessibility menu open in right of Canva frame; highlight over "Color Contrast"

To fix contrast, click "Open low-contrast text card"

Color contrast submenu open on right of Canva frame; cursor over "open low contrast text card"

Before proceeding, verify color contrast issues using the Silktide extension; while the contrast is acceptable for large text (the green box labeled AA with a checkmark), it's not sufficient for normal or body text (underneath the "150k")

Silktide extension overlay on Canva page to showing eyedropper to select text color and background to determine contrast

Canva will recommend a fix.

Low contrast menu on right showing two darker text options to improve contrast

You can click on the color to apply the change.

Color contrast menu on right; an area of low contrast text is noted with options to select from the color palette to fix

Evaluating and Fixing Alternative Text Issues

If you are sharing a presentation or a PDF of a presentation or graphic, click on "Alternative Text" in the Design Accessibility tab to see errors.

Design accessibility menu on right of Canva frame; highlight over "alternative text" button on the bottom of the list

The side menu will list any images missing alternative text.

Alt text menu on right of Canva frame listing multiple images without alt text

Click "Open no alt text card" to edit.

Alternative text menu on right with highlight on image; click on "add alternative text" to provide alt text or mark as decorative

You will have the option to add alternative text or mark the image as decorative. If the image is necessary for understanding, describe the image. If the image isn't necessary to understand the content, click "Mark as decorative"

Add alternative text option on right of Canva frame, with "mark as decorative" checked

Document Structure

Use headings to indicate document structure (H1, H2, etc.). The structure is an encoded navigation for those who do not rely on the visual navigation. Here's how to check your structure in Canva. Click "File"

File menu selected (located on top left of Canva frame)

Click "Accessibility"

Accessibility submenu that appears after clicking on the file menu

Click "Edit text semantics"

Accessibility submenu with "edit text semantics" selected

The Text semantics panel shows you the text on each slide and previews the formatting; however, it doesn't show you the encoded structure.

Text semantics menu showing each line of text given a distinct property

Click on the three dots (ellipsis) to the right of each text line; verify that it is correctly defined. In this example, "Accessibility in Canva" looks like a heading, but it's currently defined as a paragraph. Make the encoding correspond to the visual purpose (to stand out as a heading) by selecting "Heading 1." For those who cannot rely on visual cues like visually differentiated headings, navigating a document can be time-consuming and frustrating. Encoded headings help people using screen readers to quickly navigate a document without having to listen to every line of text on a page or an entire presentation. Repeat for all of the text elements on slides.

Text semantics screen; three dots to right selected to bring up heading level submenu

Evaluating for Motion (Transitions and Effects)

Click "File"

File menu location (top left of Canva frame)

Click "Accessibility"

Accessibility submenu that appears when clicking on the file menu

Click "Reduce motion"

Canva accessibility submenu expanded, showing "Reduce Motion"

Setting Reading (Layer) Order

The order of items (in front, back a layer, to the very back) determines the reading order for a presentation file. Here's how you can check and/or fix it. Click "File"

File menu location on top left of Canva frame

Click "Accessibility"

File menu open showing Accessibility submenu

Click "Navigate by layer order"

Accessibility submenu open showing; expanded to show "navigate by layer order."

Right click in page and expand the "Layer" submenu; click "Show layers"

A layer pane will show on the left, with each item listed in order it would be read from the bottom up. In this example, the order is correct. If you need to fix the order, use the set of dots to the left of the item and drag it into the appropriate place.

Layer panel on left with four-dot square highlighted to drag and drop items

Be aware that changing layers can impact the visibility of some items, so be sure to check the visual.

Layers panel on left showing impact on item visibility.

How to Check and Improve Accessibility in Canva Designs

General guide for checking accessibility in Canva and preparing for embedding and/or export to comply with WCAG AA guidelines.

Andrea Beaudin
27 steps
2 minutes

Canva

Navigate to your Canva editor

Click "File"

Click "Accessibility"

Click "Check design accessibility"

Evaluating and Fixing Color Contrast Issues

To fix contrast, click "Open low-contrast text card"

Canva will recommend a fix.

You can click on the color to apply the change.

Evaluating and Fixing Alternative Text Issues

If you are sharing a presentation or a PDF of a presentation or graphic, click on "Alternative Text" in the Design Accessibility tab to see errors.

The side menu will list any images missing alternative text.

Click "Open no alt text card" to edit.

Document Structure

Click "Accessibility"

Click "Edit text semantics"

The Text semantics panel shows you the text on each slide and previews the formatting; however, it doesn't show you the encoded structure.

Evaluating for Motion (Transitions and Effects)

Click "File"

Click "Accessibility"

Click "Reduce motion"

Setting Reading (Layer) Order

The order of items (in front, back a layer, to the very back) determines the reading order for a presentation file. Here's how you can check and/or fix it. Click "File"

Click "Accessibility"

Click "Navigate by layer order"

Right click in page and expand the "Layer" submenu; click "Show layers"

Be aware that changing layers can impact the visibility of some items, so be sure to check the visual.