Code.org’s Commitment to Accessibility

Code.org believes computer science is foundational for all students and we are committed to equity, access, and opportunity in our organizational values. To achieve this goal, we work to identify and eliminate barriers that prevent the inclusion and full participation of students and educators with disabilities.

We are working on a holistic strategy to support accessibility throughout our platform. Our vision is to close gaps in access to computer science education for students with disabilities; establish a measure of learning and inclusion; and make improvements to our tools based on this data—while incorporating feedback from our stakeholders to support the learning needs of all students.

Code.org is committed to continually improving the accessibility of our tools. As of October 2020, Code.org is not yet compliant with WCAG 2.0 Level A. In 2021, we are focusing on creating a holistic strategy for addressing accessibility support, as well as investing in high impact improvements we identify along the way. Our long-term plan toward compliance is detailed below.

Our Efforts

Hour of Code

• Align the Code.org Hour of Code experience with WCAG 2.0 Level A compliance.
• Encourage organizations submitting potential Hour of Code tutorials to list how they have addressed accessibility as part of their submission and make these tutorials and their accessibility features easy to find.

Current Accommodations:

• The Hour of Code tutorials page has a filter to highlight the tutorials from our partners that are accessible via screen-reader.

K-12 Curriculum

• Continue partnering with AccessCSForAll to provide an accessible version of our AP CSP curriculum in Quorum.
• Assess ways of making existing and new tools accessible, adopting strategies and technologies shown to be effective.
• Investigate disaggregation of data on students with disabilities and integrate it into our ongoing data collection and analysis.

Current Accommodations:

• Microsoft Immersive Reader is enabled in all Code.org lessons in the instructions panel, offering customization for students to improve reading comprehension and focus.

• In-house Text To Speech capabilities are enabled in many lessons in the instructions panel.

• All videos we create are captioned in English by our team or volunteers.
• Videos used in lessons have "show notes" allowing students to read a summary of the video content along with still images captured from the video.

• Unplugged lessons are designed to be used in a classroom setting without computers and can be adjusted to meet the accommodation needs of individual learners.

Advocacy

• Include students with disabilities as an underrepresented group when considering equity in adoption of computer science education policy.
• Collect data on students with disabilities to highlight disparities in participation in computer science classes.

Workplace

• Create an Accessibility Working Group to plan, advocate, and execute accessibility improvements.
• Adhere to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance requirements and support applicants and employees with disabilities through reasonable accommodations.

Our Partners and Recommendations

Code.org has partnered with AccessCSForAll to provide an adaptation of our AP Computer Science Principles curriculum using Quorum, an evidence-based language originally designed to provide accessibility for blind or visually-impaired students. Individual lessons in the course were modified to use alternative interactive tools from Quorum and “unplugged” activities to provide support for people with various disabilities.

Additionally, we recommend the following resources for students with disabilities in computer science and their teachers:

Name	Organization Type	Recommended Grades	Description
AccessCSForAll	Content Provider	K-12	An organization that provides resources for teachers bringing accessible computing to secondary schools and for high school students with disabilities to connect with mentors in the technology space.
Blocks4All	Product Provider	K-8	A block-based programming environment for the iPad to help you learn basic programming concepts. It is accessible with VoiceOver, Switch Control, and Voice Control. It was designed by a research group at Macalester College. The app requires the Dash robot in order to run, but the research group is not affiliated with Wonder Workshop.
Code Jumper	Product Provider	K-6	A physical coding aid/resource for students with visual impairments.
CSForAll	Content Provider	K-12	Spearheading projects and programs with different organizations across the United States.
Deaf Kids Code	Curriculum Provider	K-12	An organization that promotes computer science and technology education to empower students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Everyone Can Code	Product Provider	K-12	A curriculum designed by Apple for Swift Playgrounds that provides VoiceOver (modified TTS) and adapted curriculum for students with accessibility needs.
Khan Academy	Content Provider	K-12	Hosts a Code.org curriculum about Computers and the Internet, as well as other computing curricula with various accommodations, including the ability to reduce animation motion, captions, transcripts, and the ability to hide visually dependent content.
Snap Circuits	Product Provider	K-6	An educational product that teaches electronics with solderless snap-together electronic components. Can include an access pack for students with visual impairments.
Sphero	Product Provider	K-12	An interactive coding robotic ball & STEM education kit for students with intellectual disabilities. Needs to be paired with an appropriate application.

Let Us Know How We Can Improve

At Code.org, we are agile and responsive to feedback. If you have recommendations to help us improve the accessibility of our tools and resources, please reach out to our support team. Thank you for helping us make computer science available for all students.