USE LISTS TO BREAK UP CONTENT

Uninterrupted text content, or "walls of text," discourage readers and harm reading comprehension. While you have lots of tools in your toolbox to break up walls of text (such as accessible section headings and images), lists are one of the best for learners. Lists help learners see that concepts are related, and they reduce reader fatigue.

Lists are particularly effective for:

Presenting key concepts
Defining terms
Organizing information
Showing sequence or order in a process
Linking to additional information (for example, see the list at the end of this page)

When evaluating your course content, consider how you can use lists to break up longer content and present key ideas in an easy-to-digest manner.

CREATE AN ACCESSIBLE LIST IN CANVAS

To make your lists accessible, they should be set up as lists in Canvas, rather than manually styled. To create a list in Canvas, select the list dropdown and select the most appropriate list type (more on that shortly).

Canvas RCE with List Dropdown

Just as with Section Headings, using the Canvas Rich Content Editor's tools instead of manually styling makes the underlying code recognizable for users of assistive technologies.

- This is a manually styled bullet 👈 Don't do this!

This is a bullet selected with the Canvas Rich Content Editor bullet list tool 👈 Do this!

Lists fall into two categories: unordered lists (commonly known as bullet lists) and ordered lists (commonly known as numbered lists). When you select the list dropdown in Canvas, you have three unordered options in the top row (filled circle, empty circle, and square) and three ordered options in the bottom row (numbers, letters, and roman numerals). Use the unordered list options to group related items that don't require a particular sequence. Use the ordered list options to group related items that belong in a specific sequence, such as directions to complete a task or rankings of items.

FEATURES OF AN ACCESSIBLE LIST

Accessible lists:

Use parallel structure (same part of speech, verb tense, and sentence structure)
Group related ideas or items
Include at least two list items

Accessible lists do not:

Include nested lists unless those lists have different designations, such as a letter list inside a number list
Contain headings, images, or videos
Use custom "image" bullets (unless properly coded)

Quick Recap

Use the list tool in Canvas to create bullet or number lists that can break up your content and aid comprehension.

Further Reading

Making Lists Accessible in Canvas
Lists Bookmarklet for Accessibility Testing