Before you start

Which model is yours?

Single tenant compared with multi-tenant: who each is for, what is installed, and who is invoiced
	Single tenant	Multi-tenant
Who it is for	One institution, one budget	Several colleges on one Canvas, each with its own budget
Installs in Canvas	One, at the root account	One, at the root account
Entries in the Canvas menu	One	One
Canvas access token	The institution's, entered once	The institution's, entered once
EqualWeb API key	One, held by the institution	One per college, held by each college
Who is invoiced	The institution	Each college separately

The install is identical in both. The only difference is one switch inside the tool, and it can be changed later. You do not install anything a second time, and no college ever gets its own entry in the Canvas menu.

Why only one install? A tool installed at the root account of a Canvas is inherited by every sub-account beneath it. If a college also installed its own, its administrators would see two identical menu entries pointing at two separate accounts with two separate bills, with no way to tell which one they clicked. One install avoids that by construction.

Part A

Install - once per Canvas

You need a Canvas root account administrator. It takes about five minutes.

One thing you need from us: the registration URL. For security it is not published on this page - your EqualWeb contact sends it to you when your institution is enabled for early access. If you do not have it yet, contact us or book a short call and we will issue it.

Add EqualWeb as a developer key

Go to Admin → Developer Keys → + Developer Key → + LTI Registration
Paste the EqualWeb registration URL https://…/register - the one we sent you.
Continue through the wizard and choose Install.
Back in the Developer Keys list, set State → ON.
Copy the Client ID - the long number in the Details column.

Use LTI Registration (also called Dynamic Registration). The other two options - Manual Entry and Enter URL - create the key on the Canvas side only. EqualWeb never learns about your Canvas, and the tool then fails to open with a browser error naming our domain.

Install it in the root account

Go to Admin → your root account → Settings → Apps → View App Configurations → + App
Set Configuration Type: By Client ID.
Paste the Client ID from A1 → Submit → Install.

Install it at the root account only. Every sub-account inherits it automatically.

Give EqualWeb read access to your files

An LTI launch tells us who a person is. It grants no access to files at all - that is deliberate in the LTI standard. One access token, entered once, is what lets the tool list and open course documents.

Account → Settings → + New Access Token. Purpose: EqualWeb. Choose Generate Token and copy it - Canvas shows it only once.
Open EqualWeb PDF Accessibility from your root account's menu. It opens on Connect.
Fill in three fields:
- Canvas base URL - your Canvas address, for example https://canvas.yourschool.edu
- Canvas access token - the token you just generated
- Canvas account ID - your root account number, usually 1
Choose Save platform credentials, then Test connection. It reports the identity the tool will act as - if that is not who you expect, stop and correct it here.

Use a dedicated administrator account, not a personal one. The token carries the permissions of whoever created it, so if that person leaves or changes role, the connection stops working. A service account avoids that.

No college ever enters a Canvas token. There is one connection, it belongs to the institution, and a sub-account administrator never sees the form.

Add your EqualWeb API key

Accessibility checks are free within a daily allowance. The API key is what pays for remediation and HTML conversion.

Open the Start Auto Remediation tab and follow the five steps it lists: create an EqualWeb account, add a payment method, buy credits, create an API key under Profile → API Keys, and copy it.
Settings → API key → paste → Save API key.

That is the whole installation. You are now running single tenant.

Part B

Switching to multi-tenant

Only if several colleges on this Canvas each need their own invoice.

As a root administrator: Settings → Billing → Bill each sub-account separately
Confirm, then Save billing mode.

What changes the moment you turn it on

Your institution API key is removed. In this mode the institution is not a payer, and a key left in place would quietly keep paying for everyone. This is why the two modes are exclusive.
Each college's administrator gets an API key field of their own, labelled with their account number.
A college without a key runs on the free plan: checks yes, remediation no.
An instructor's work is charged to the college that owns their course.

What does not change: the install, the Canvas connection, the menu, and what each person can see. A college administrator still sees only their own college's documents, exactly as before.

Turning it back off restores single billing. The colleges' keys are kept but stop being used, so you can move between the two modes without losing anything.

Roles

What each person sees

What an institution administrator, a college administrator and an instructor each see
	Institution administrator	College administrator	Instructor
Documents	Every course in the institution	Their own college only	Their own course only
Courses, Analytics, Permissions, Settings	Yes	Yes, scoped to their college	No
Canvas connection	Enters it	Never sees it	Never sees it
EqualWeb API key	Single: theirs · multi: none	Single: none · multi: theirs	Never

A college administrator's scope is not a setting we apply - Canvas is asked who they administer at every launch, and the answer decides what they see.

Adding a college later? Nothing to install. The college is a Canvas sub-account like any other; the moment it exists, its administrator can open the tool and will see their own documents. In multi-tenant mode they add their own API key and are invoiced separately from then on.

If something looks wrong

Troubleshooting

"Refused to connect" - the browser error names an EqualWeb domain

The developer key was created with Manual Entry or Enter URL instead of LTI Registration, so EqualWeb has no record of your Canvas. Delete the key and redo step A1.

The tool opens but shows no documents

The Canvas connection is missing, or the access token has been revoked. Settings → Test connection reports what the tool can actually reach.

Two "EqualWeb PDF Accessibility" entries in the menu

The tool was installed in a sub-account as well as the root. Remove the sub-account install - it is not needed in either model. (Or, if you must keep both, set the root install's availability to Not available for that sub-account under Apps → Manage → Availability.)

A college shows fewer documents than expected

The list defaults to the current year. Choose All years to include earlier courses.

"Remediation needs a key" for a college in multi-tenant mode

That college has not added its own API key yet. Until it does, it can run checks but not remediation.

Still stuck? Open a support request · About the product: PDF Accessibility for Canvas LMS

Early access

Get your registration URL

Tell us about your Canvas and we will enable your institution and send the registration URL - then this guide takes about five minutes.

Book a meeting Contact us

Installing EqualWeb PDF Accessibility on Canvas