Why is accessibility important in the classroom?
The new school year comes with opportunities and a renewed focus on accessibility in schools. It also brings a new group of students excited for a fresh start. Each student brings different learning strengths and concerns to the classroom.
Using technology to support accessibility
Teachers are always looking for ways to create an accessible classroom for the needs of every student, especially at the beginning of the year. Technology is a great place to start for resources designed with accessibility in education and classroom inclusion in mind. With edtech products, that means every student can access and engage with the learning experience.
As teachers get to know their students, they’ll also be able to understand how to identify and implement different accessibility features to make learning experiences user-friendly for all students.
How do ExploreLearning products support accessibility?
At ExploreLearning, we understand how critical it is for educational technology to be accessible to every student. We believe all students can succeed in math and science—and have fun along the way! That’s why we keep learning and improving our STEM resources to ensure that our resources bring accessible learning experiences to all students. This commitment inspires us to work continuously toward enhancing the accessibility of our products to serve the needs of learners with disabilities.
What are some accessibility features in Gizmos?
We strive to make Gizmos an accessible learning solution that helps all students feel successful. Here are a few key considerations for accessibility:
- Gizmos strives to be keyboard accessible, such as using 'Tab' to move forward, ‘Spacebar’ to toggle, or arrows to navigate dropdown options and sliders, which are easy to remember.
- Gizmos simulations use minimal text and automatically resize to the best fit for a screen, making most text easy to read.
- Gizmos does not use repeated flashes.
- Many parts of Gizmos, but not all, have contrasting colors.
- Time-based responses are rarely used in Gizmos, and users can repeat and try again.
What are some accessibility features in Reflex?
Reflex has many features that make it an accessible learning solution for all students. The following list includes a few of those features.
- Reflex is very visually based with minimal text.
- Reflex keyboard controls have an on-screen focus to support students who need to navigate completely without a mouse or touch device.
- Closed captioning is available for voiced audio, and students can turn it on or off.
- Audio and music are optional.
- Reflex measures keyboard entry speed at the beginning of each student’s sessions to differentiate the expected time the student will take to respond to questions.
What are some accessibility features in Frax?
Much of the Frax experience is text responses to math problems without dependence on shape, size, location, orientation, or sound. Frax also has Keyboard Navigation, Tab, Space, Enter, and Arrow Keys enabled as an alternative to a mouse for selecting on-screen buttons/selections, including:
- Tab: Engages the navigation and moves between sets of buttons, entry boxes, menus, missions, activities, rooms, items, HintBots, GuideBots, etc.
- Arrow Keys: Move between options in a set, e.g., between the “Sound,” “Music,” and “Fullscreen” buttons within the top menu button set or games in a mission.
- Space or Enter: Acts as a mouse click to activate a selected button.
What are some accessibility features in Science4Us?
Science4Us lessons are designed for pre- to emerging readers; therefore, much of the content is delivered through images. The text that is included is read aloud for students in most scenarios. Here are a few of the other accessibility features:
- Science4Us games do not rely on the use of color to navigate games.
- Audio directions can be repeated in games using the 'ear icon.'
- Timing of responses is not required.
- Alt text is provided for images.
- Text-to-speech is available on the student’s dashboard.
How can you learn more about ExploreLearning’s accessibility?
ExploreLearning is here to support teachers and students. Take advantage of our professional development offerings, such as Introduction to Gizmos, Back to School with Reflex, Introduction to Frax, and Introduction to Science4Us, to discuss using all of each product's features.
We passionately support the ultimate goal of making all products as accessible as possible and look forward to sharing more information as additional accessibility enhancements and new features are implemented.
Additional details about accessibility features for all products are available in our Help Center.
