Accessibility

Educator & Xello Admin Xello product

Xello 6-12 Time

3 minutes

Accessibility ensures that people with disabilities can use Xello. This includes compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers.

Xello has been designed and developed to be compatible with the following standards:

Core components of accessibility
A myriad of techniques have been implemented to make Xello accessible. Here are some of the main pillars of our accessibility strategy:

Color contrast and font sizes meet the standards described in WCAG 2.2 Level AA
Captioning for all audio and video content
Full keyboard accessibility
Use of ARIA-live regions for screen readers

Screen readers

All screen readers that support the above standards are compatible with Xello. To verify that we are meeting these standards, we test with the following screen readers:

NVDA in FireFox on Windows
VoiceOver in Safari on Mac and iOS
JAWS in Internet Explorer on Windows
ChromeVox

Note: Other screen readers will also work with Xello if they are compliant with the standards listed above.

More accessibility techniques in Xello

There are a lot of techniques used to make Xello an inclusive experience. Accessibility is built in at the design stage both for features and content.

Links are provided to skip navigation that appears on every page
Font sizes are made as large as possible
No hover effects are used without equivalent click actions
Drag and drop components have keyboard alternatives
Images do not contain instructional or informational text
Color alone is never used to convey information
Focus indicators are maintained throughout the site
Forms include explicit labels and placeholder text is minimized
Table columns and rows use proper markup
Maintain simple navigation to reduce cognitive load
Student-facing content in Xello K-2 is written to a 2nd grade reading level
Student-facing content in Xello 3-5 is written to a 3rd grade reading level
Student-facing content in Xello 6-12 is written to a 6th grade reading level
Links use descriptive text, e.g. not “click here”
The Xello student experience and Xello Family are available in 135 different languages. Students or parents/guardians click their avatar in the top right corner on any page in Xello to select a different language.