Our goals
Our mission to give teachers superpowers while motivating students to learn goes hand-in-hand with ensuring our platform is accessible to all students and educators. Accessibility is an ongoing effort as guided by standards such as the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A + AA success and conformance criteria and suggestions from our teachers and students.
Examples of how we support our community
Our design process includes requirements that we build accessibility considerations into our product from the outset. Accessibility is a core part of meeting our mission. Here are some of the ways we've built Class Companion to support as many teachers and students as possible:
Self-paced or Timed: Every student using Class Companion should be able to complete writing assignments at their own, comfortable pace. Class Companion encourages students to take as much time as they need with their writing assignment with no time limit and auto-saving for essays so as not to lose progress.
Ability to add images, audio, and video in questions: Class Companion encourages every student to perform to the best of their ability. Class Companion encourages all students to be able to learn, understand and reflect at their own pace. By adding images or links to audio and video to questions on Class Companion, teachers ensure that their instruction reaches each and every student.
Assignment format range: The range of support assignment formats on Class Companion encourage teachers to evaluate their students' higher-order thinking. From short answer to essay to outline to document based questions, Class Companion enables teachers to evaluate students' understanding and empowers them to share remedial practice activities if necessary.
Language translations: Class Companion encourages all teachers and students to access its content in all languages of the world. Presently Class Companion (the website, publicly available assignments and rubrics) can be translated with one click in Chrome using Translate in the right of the address bar. This supports over 100 languages including English, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian, Bahasa Indonesia, Malay, Filipino, Deutsch, Vietnamese, Thai, Azerbaijani, Portuguese, Mandarin, Turkish, Italian, Japanese, and more.
Answer Explanations: Class Companion encourages teachers to describe answers in detail by overriding scores with feedback. This enables teachers to reinforce learning at the exact moment of instruction and assessment.
Screen reader: Class Companion is built to be compatible with screen readers so as to be easily accessible by as many users as possible. With screen readers, teachers and students can engage with all interactive elements displayed on their device screens.
Keyboard navigation: Class Companion aims to create digital experiences that are user-friendly and easy to interact with. Keyboard navigation on Class Companion ensures that teachers and students can access all interactive elements displayed on their screens using their keyboards alone.
Questions on learner devices: Content such as assignments is shown on learner devices, making it easier for many students to access by reducing the need to see across a room (as is the case with content projected on a whiteboard), or switch between browser tabs or windows.
Broad device support: We support a broad spectrum of internet-enabled devices and browsers in order to make the service as accessible to as many people as possible.
Language Support: We've provided user-interface translation and read-aloud support in several of our most commonly used languages. Currently responses can be written in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and more.
Readability: Our design process includes readability considerations such as text size, color, and contrast.
Printing: Assignments, reports, and other content can be printed as needed.
Further information
If you have questions or suggestions that would improve accessibility and usability for you or your students, please reach out to us at [email protected].