Study Suite® Accessibility Project

In an effort to make our software more inclusive for all users, we are happy to announce the start of Project WCAG.  WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and it is a set of internationally-recognized recommendations for making the web more accessible for people with disabilities.

For this project, we are focusing solely on our web apps:  Study Suite Anywhere, Study Suite Monitoring, and Study Suite Mock Exams

This month, we’ve already completed the first of many steps in making the web apps more accessible for people with disabilities.  Today (2/25/25), an update was pushed through to the web apps, which includes the following criteria (activated in the initial registration and in Settings):

• Captions (Prerecorded) WCAG criteria 1.2.2, Level A:  The videos in the web apps now can have captions automatically displayed during play for those who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Contrast (Minimum) WCAG criteria 1.4.3, Level AA:  A new setting is available to turn on High Contrast.  This setting will display larger (and in some areas bold) text, and the color scheme is optimized for better reading for those with low vision

When I say this is the first of many guidelines to implement, “many” refers to 88 in total!  Yikes!  Now, while there are 80+ total guidelines, some of the guidelines simply won’t apply to our apps or at least need to be implemented right away.  To say this is going to be a very long journey is an understatement.  As today’s update shows, our plan is to work on little bits at a time in between regular updates to our desktop, mobile, and web apps.  We will update this post periodically with status updates on the project.

For more information, check out the Accessibility Statement for Software and Apps page and the Project Roadmap page.

Project update 4/13/26

• We’ve added keyboard navigation and screenreader capabilities, which crosses off many items from the WCAG checklist.  This new accessibility addition is meant for blind and very-low-vision students who use assistive technology (VoiceOver on Mac or NVDA or JAWS on Windows) to navigate through apps and have all the text read aloud.  As of this date, only the Study Suite Anywhere web app contains this new functionality.  Next in line will be the Mock Exams web app, and possibly followed by the desktop Study Suite software and mobile apps.

Project update 4/24/25

• Pointer Cancellation WCAG criteria 2.5.2, Level A:  A press-down on a button does not initiate the action until the mouse button release is handled while still on the control.  Pressing down on a button and releasing elsewhere will not trigger the event (event is canceled)
• Use of Color WCAG criteria 1.4.1, Level A:  A small red ring becomes visible over a control which is hovered over with the mouse pointer

Project update 2/25/25

• Captions (Prerecorded) WCAG criteria 1.2.2, Level A:  The videos in the web apps now can have captions automatically displayed during play for those who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Contrast (Minimum) WCAG criteria 1.4.3, Level AA:  A new setting is available to turn on High Contrast.  This setting will display larger (and in some areas bold) text, and the color scheme is optimized for better reading