Instructure Announces Accessibility Checker for Canvas and Partnership With Speechmatics for Video Captioning

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure, Inc. (NYSE: INST), a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter, today announced its new Accessibility Checker for Canvas and a partnership between its video platform Arc and Speechmatics at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Philadelphia. These enhancements provide greater accessibility for all students.

The Accessibility Checker makes it easy for anyone creating content in Canvas, Instructure's innovative learning management system (LMS), to identify and correct some of the most common accessibility issues, saving time, granting peace of mind and providing a better experience for all students. As accessibility is core to the Canvas user experience, Canvas now facilitates accessible content creation, at no extra cost, by providing an intuitive interface to fix common accessibility issues.

"Our enhancements to Canvas demonstrate our commitment to accessibility in education and support our goal of making teaching and learning easier for everyone, including those with disabilities," said Mitch Benson, senior vice president of product at Instructure. "The Canvas Accessibility Checker is a huge help in both identifying and correcting the most common accessibility issues to ensure an enriching learning experience for every student."

When working in the Rich Content Editor within Canvas, any user can activate the Accessibility Checker from the toolbar. This performs an accessibility check on the current content, reports problem areas or concerns and makes it easy to correct accessibility issues.

The Accessibility Checker is useful for everyone involved in education. For instructors, the tool provides an easy way to check and correct common accessibility issues and teaches them how to avoid these problems in the future. Administrators have peace of mind knowing Canvas users are creating accessible content and have the opportunity to engage the campus community in training and dialogue around accessibility. Students are able to ensure that all classmates can understand and engage in class communication and interaction.

Open source is at the heart of Instructure. Not only is the Accessibility Checker available for free to all Canvas users, but the code has been added to the Instructure open source library, where it can be accessed by anyone at https://github.com/instructure/tinymce-a11y-checker. 

As part of its commitment to accessibility for all students, Instructure's video platform Arc has partnered with Speechmatics, a provider of automatic speech recognition technology, to add captions to its video content.

"Arc is designed to empower teachers and students to interact with each other through video, and the addition of automatic captioning enables us to expand this collaborative learning experience," said Benson. "Speechmatics' speech-to-text transcription is one of the best in the industry, providing incredibly high levels of accuracy."

Not only does the introduction of automatic captioning enable accessible content, it also supports captions for video content to ensure users can still learn and view the videos without sound on any device. When a user is not familiar with an accent or dialect used in the video content, the technology encourages self-learning by enabling users to read and listen at the same time.

To learn more about Canvas or Arc, or to see a product demo, visit booth #211 at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference at The Pennsylvania Convention Center, or visit www.CanvasLMS.com.

ABOUT CANVAS
Through open, usable, cloud-based technologies, Canvas enables easy integration of the content, tools and services that teachers need and students want. As the most usable, customizable, adaptable and reliable learning platform (think 99.9% uptime), Canvas is adopted faster and deeper (or, is used in more ways by more users) than any other LMS. So, in the end, investing in 21st century education technology actually makes teaching and learning easier (like it's supposed to). Learn more about Canvas at www.CanvasLMS.com.

ABOUT ARC
Arc is a hands-on video platform that turns content into collaboration. Unlike most video platforms, Arc brings learners into the conversation by turning one-way lectures into inclusive discussions and sprawling comments sections into measurably deeper engagement with content. Arc also integrates seamlessly with Canvas, Instructure's powerful, intuitive learning management system. For more information, visit www.ArcMedia.com.

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE
Instructure, Inc. is a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximize the potential of people through technology, Instructure created Canvas, Gauge, Arc and Bridge to enable organizations everywhere to easily develop, deliver and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of instructors and learners at more than 3,000 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about Canvas for higher ed and K–12, and Bridge for the corporate market, at www.Instructure.com.

CONTACT:
Becky Frost
Senior Director, Public Relations
Instructure
801-869-5017
becky@instructure.com

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SOURCE Canvas by Instructure