A11y View: Build an Atom

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 Build an Atom 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.