Accessibility

Every student should be able to write in Notegrade, and every teacher should be able to grade in it. We build the student and teacher pages to meet WCAG 2.1 level AA, and we follow WCAG 2.2 where it is practical.

What we have done

• Keyboard use. Controls are real buttons, links and form fields that you can reach with Tab. The review screen has single-key shortcuts that work only when its panel has focus, and teachers can turn them off.
• Visible focus. Every focusable control shows a clear focus ring.
• Contrast. Text and controls use a small set of color tokens chosen for contrast in light and dark mode. Color is never the only signal: each rubric criterion also has its own underline style.
• Reduced motion. Notegrade has almost no animation, and it turns off what little there is when your device asks for reduced motion.
• Zoom. We check pages at 200% browser zoom and on narrow screens, and the student writing page works at both without scrolling sideways.
• Screen readers. Buttons, form fields, highlights and status messages have labels, and save, offline and time warnings are announced without moving focus.
• Dictation. The writing page accepts dictation and other speech-to-text tools for everyone. Paste is blocked by the paste event only, so dictated text always goes in, and teachers can mark dictation as allowed so it reads correctly in the writing record.
• Accommodations. Teachers can give a student extended time, read aloud, spell check, or a hidden timer.

Known gaps

• We have not had an outside accessibility audit yet, and we do not yet have a conformance report (VPAT). Both are on our list.
• We have not finished testing with ChromeVox and ChromeOS Dictation on a real school Chromebook.
• Some parts of the teacher app, such as large gradebooks, take many Tab presses to move through, and a few teacher screens still scroll sideways on a narrow screen.
• On the review screen, selecting a deduction card still needs a mouse or the shortcut keys. Accept and Reject are regular buttons.
• Students cannot pause the timer yet. A teacher can add time for one student or for the whole class instead.
• The product pictures on our home page are simplified drawings of the app. Each has a text description.

Report a problem

If something in Notegrade is hard to use with your device, browser or assistive technology, email matt@notegrade.com with what you were trying to do and which page you were on.