A11y View: Friction

Activity log of Interactive Alerts

Interactive alerts are read out as the user interacts providing a description of what is happening in real-time. Alerts appear in reverse chronological order with the latest on top.

    What is the A11y View?

    The A11y View is a design and presentation tool that allows us to visually demonstrate the accessibility layer of the simulation. We refer to this layer as the Parallel DOM, or PDOM. The PDOM (copied into the blue box) exposes the simulation’s full document structure and all the dynamic descriptive content that lives within that structure to a student accessing the simulation using assistive technology, such as screen reader software. The activity log (copied into the orange box), exposes the interactive alerts that a student would hear in real-time as they interact with the simulation. Interact with the accessible version of Friction in the iframe, with either a keyboard or a mouse, and notice how the activity log (orange box) and the content of the PDOM (blue box) update as you interact.

    Please note that students do not use the A11y View, they use the accessible simulation, alone, which is rendered here inside the iframe.

    PDOM & Descriptions for Friction

    Content in the blue box updates in real-time to provide an always-available description of the current state of the sim.