Reviewer Guide

SIMnet’s acessibility solution is fullly WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. The following outlines what is and what is not accessible and what you need to know before validating accessibility in SIMnet.

Can SIMnet be used to deliver a fully accessible course?

Yes, SIMnet provides a variety of accessible alternatives to inaccessible components or assignment types. View the Instructor Guide for details on building an accessible course in SIMnet.

Which components are accessible?

• Student Platform

• Student Help PDF available here

• SIMbooks and Lessons

  • Page content

  • Guide Me exercises

  • Let Me Try exercises for Computer Concepts

• Test Bank Exams

• SIMnet Exams

  • Simulation based questions for Computer Concepts

• Graded Projects

Which components are NOT accessible or have not been evaluated?

• Course Manager (used by Administrators and Instructors)

• Course Manager Help Website (https://help.simnetonline.com/manager)

• Course Manager Release Notes Website (https://help.simnetonline.com/blog)

• Student Help Website (https://help.simnetonline.com/students)
• SIMbook and Lesson exercises for Show Me animations

• SIMbook and Lesson exercises that require the full simulation

  • Let Me Try simulations for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Windows, File Management, Browsers, and Outlook

• SIMnet simulated exam questions

  • Simulation based questions for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Windows, File Management, Browsers, and Outlook

• SIMpaths

  • These exercises rely on the simulated exam questions for the pre and post tests and the simulated Let Me Try exercises for the lesson component

What do I need to know before testing?

SIMnet has a special color theme for high contrast mode. Be sure to enable this setting prior to testing. To enable high-contrast mode use the student profile link located on the upper-right corner of the interface just after signing in.

Let Me Try simulations and some SIMnet Exam questions cannot be made accessible due to the nature of making a desktop application such as Microsoft Word available in the browser. Desktop accessibility has different standards and capabilities than web-based applications. This can be seen in the differences between the online and desktop interfaces of Microsoft Office. Since we aim to simulate the desktop version of the software, a web-accessible simulation in many cases would fail to properly simulate the desktop interface.

Show Me animations contain the spoken text captions, but do not contain a descriptive narrative for nonsighted users.

The Guide Me exercises have been specially designed to be accessible and are a valid alternative to the Show Me and Let Me Try exercise. The Guide Me exercises assess the same learning outcome as the Let Me Try, but in a more controlled environment.

SIMnet contains some assignment types and content that are not accessible. In each case, an alternative assignment type or combination of assignments can be used to provide learning and assessment of the same outcomes in an accessible way.

The Student Help site is not fully accessible, but we publish an accessible PDF containing the same content. We are continually working with our 3rd party documentation vendor to improve accessibility.

SIMnet makes it easy to seamlessly assign alternate learning objects and grading requirements to students with accessibility needs.

Which tools and screen readers did we test with?

Testing SIMnet involved a combination of automated, manual, and functional testing on a Windows desktop against the applicable success criteria within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Conformance Level A and AA. Level Access (Level) comprehensively tested all learner platform features and workflows and a selection of content using a representative sample to cover the components and functionality of user flows. Level tested with the screen reader JAWS on Chrome browser, the screen reader NVDA on Firefox browser, ZoomText® magnification software, and Dragon® NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software.

Testing SIMnet involved a combination of automated, manual, and functional testing on a Windows desktop against the applicable success criteria within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Conformance Level A and AA. Level Access (Level) comprehensively tested all learner platform features and workflows and a selection of content using a representative sample to cover the components and functionality of user flows. Level tested with the screen reader JAWS on Chrome browser, the screen reader NVDA on Firefox browser, ZoomText® magnification software, and Dragon® NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software.

Which standards did we use to evaluate accessibility?

• WCAG 2.1 A, AA

• EN 301 549: Chapter 9 - Web, Sections 10.1-10.4 of Chapter 10 - Non-Web documents, and Sections 11.1-11.4 and 11.8.2 of Chapter 11 - Non-Web Software (open and closed functionality), and Sections 12.1.2 and 12.2.4 of Chapter 12 – Documentation

• Revised Section 508: Chapter 5 – 501.1 Scope, 504.2 Content Creation or Editing, and Chapter 6 – 602.3 Electronic Support Documentation.