Canva puts effort into accessibility! You can check color contrast, alt text, reduce motion, pdf access and captions for your designs.
This article will guide you through the goods and the gaps of creating designs and using accessibility features offered by Canva.
At the end of the blog is the Designer Cheat Sheet: Canva Accessibility that you can download and use on your journey to being accessible!
Definitions
- Color contrast is the difference in brightness between foreground and background colors
- Alt Text ensures that screen readers can understand the content
- Reducing Motion in design can prevent medical issues that arise from quick and flashy movements from stickers, gifs and animations
- Enabling auto generated captions adds subtitles to videos and presentations with audio
Auto Generated Captions
The good is improved access and the gap is unreliable accuracy.
A University of Minnesota study found that YouTube’s automatic captions are only 60–70% accurate. They often struggle with complex terms and have difficulty transcribing regional or international accents due to training on standard dialects.
While it’s better to have auto generated than nothing at all, adding captions and editing them for accuracy is important.
True Advocates & Allies Edit Captions
PDF Accessibility
The good is you can create interactive pdf files with Canva and the gap is that it won’t always guarantee it is accessible.
The more complicated the design the higher chance of flaws when you export.
Issues can be:
- semantic hierarchy, your H1, H2, H3 etc. may not work for screen readers.
- Tags are needed for assistive tech to identity what is on the page, but it may not have the appropriate tags
The good news is, as the designer you can make sure your pdfs work!
- Add alt text to the images
- Make sure to mark decorative items as such. For example, if you use squares to create contrast, that would be decorative.
- Use an external program like Adobe Express to add the correct pdf tags
PDFs can be interactive with hyperlinks. While the dynamic content is engaging, you need to make sure the elements are tagged correctly when exported. Don’t forget that some platforms like LinkedIn do not support hyperlinks within carousels, so include applicable links in your post.
Risks of Animation in Canva Designs
The good is creating dynamic and engaging content and the gap is that dynamic content can be exclusionary.
Motion graphics can have negative side effects for physical disabilities, mental health disabilities and cognitive disabilities. Have you ever watched a Twitch stream with the nauseating pulsating wiggling overlay? Instead of adding to the experience it ruins it.
A lot of templates in Canva include animations that should not be used – if you want your content to be accessible.
Physical Side Effects
Seizures are triggered by animations. Especially Canva’s “Shake” or “Flash” animations exceed 3 flashes/second if looped.
If you insist on shake, wiggle, flash, pulsate and other animations slow it down. Make it legible! Excessive motion can decrease the effectiveness of your message.
If you are a developer, test your designs with the Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT). a free, downloadable resource for devs to identify seizure risks in their web content and software.
Play it safe. No one wants to stare at a flashing iguana riding horse for the duration of their interaction with your content.
Vestibular Risks with Templates
Popular “Animated Social Media” templates using spinning elements can trigger vertigo, migraines and seizures. Instead of using them as is, filter templates by “Reduced Motion” tag or create custom accessible versions.
AI Alt Text Generation
Can you use AI for Alt Text: Yes, but use it as a tool to craft the information not as a crutch. While AI, when used properly, is useful for accessibility. Never lose the human element. AI was designed by humans and is fallible like humans.
If you use an AI generator for motion graphics, it may not be accurate. Make sure to double check your alt text and never rely solely on AI to get it done.
An Overview of Ways to Design Safely
Design with accessibility in mind! Don’t wait until it is created to fix it. If you are mindful from the start you create less work for yourself.
Always test for gaps with the accessibility tools in Canva and Adobe Express.
Avoid things like:
- Cumulative flashing (≥3 flashes/sec)
- Color contrast below 4.5:1
- Messy designs with illegible text
- Cluttered layouts without correct alt text
Instead take these steps to take control of accessibility with Canva
- Use Canva’s Interactive PDF export for preserved controls.
- Enable “Reduce Motion” mode in Canva Project Settings.
- Use “Focus Mode” to hide decorative animations during editing.
- Don’t rely on auto generated captions
- Add alt text for motion graphics in the body of your posts
- Be mindful of what platforms do not activate hyperlinks in pdfs
Download the Designer Cheat Sheet: Canva Accessibility
Tas The Artist 
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