Back
The District

Newsela Can Help Your School Become More Accessible

The Newsela Team
Oct 19, 2022

For the past few years Newsela has been on a journey to create a more accessible platform so that every student can participate in meaningful classroom learning. We are excited to share that over the summer we achieved conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA, the gold standard in web accessibility. This huge accomplishment was achieved as part of a deliberate and concerted effort across our company, and led by our accessibility team, to ensure that every student has access to instructional content that excites, empowers, and unlocks their potential. 

As part of our conformance to WCAG 2.1, we offer accessibility supports including, platform navigation using only a keyboard, colors that meet both text and graphical color contrast standards, alternative text on every image, and more

We are constantly seeking to improve our platform and make it more accessible to students, regardless of their ability or use of assistive technology. To ensure that accessibility is embedded in our work at Newsela, we take steps like providing accessibility training for all Newsela employees, incorporating accessibility into every step of the software development lifecycle, soliciting feedback from teacher and student users through UX research testing and having a dedicated accessibility feedback email.

Why Accessibility Matters 

We’re committed to accessibility at Newsela because we know that creating the most accessible classrooms and learning environments benefits all students. If students with disabilities can’t access the large (and growing) number of digital resources used in classrooms, they miss out on learning and their peers miss out on the contributions they would make to the class and materials. When students can’t follow along to the same text, or experience the same videos as their peers, they’re also reminded that the classroom is yet another environment that is unwelcome to those with disabilities. 

We also know that in a growing number of statesIllinois, Maryland, and New Jersey among them–new laws have been passed requiring digital tools be made accessible to all students, in accordance with WCAG.

The best way to ensure that classroom materials and learning environments are accessible to all is by infusing accessibility considerations into decision-making at every level.

Newsela’s Commitment to Accessible Classrooms 

Newsela is well-versed in the world of WCAG compliance, so we’ve put together a “quick-start guide” to help you navigate and make sure all students, especially those with disabilities or developmental delays, can access the important learning materials they need. If you’d like to go more in depth to learn about how to make your classroom or district more WCAG compliant, we’ve put together a hub of resources to get you started. 

For more information, visit www.newsela.com/about/wcag!

The Latest from @Newsela

#TeacherTwitter 🧑‍🏫 How do you trigger curiosity in your classroom? 🙋🙋‍♀️🙋🏽‍♂️🙋🏽🙋🏿‍♀️🙋🏻🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏾‍♂️🙋🏿‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋‍♂️
March 27, 2023, 3:16 PM
The free version of Newsela is no longer meeting the needs and expectations of what tech can really do in the classroom. But we've got you covered with #NewselaLite.
March 23, 2023, 5:39 PM
🔷Announcement🔷📣 On June 30th we will retire the current free version of our product and replace it with Newsela Lite, a new, freemium experience of our premium subject products. More on #NewselaLite from our CEO → https://t.co/TemKPnNQFE https://t.co/D0CTwRF6Yc
March 21, 2023, 4:56 PM
Time to adjust your clocks because #DaylightSavingTime is here ⏰👩‍🏫 Save an hour by checking out our classroom-ready lesson! 🔎 Search "daylight saving time" on the Newsela search bar https://t.co/V2VHMqNliW
March 12, 2023, 4:35 PM
Fake news is everywhere on the internet nowadays, which makes it so important for students to learn to investigate content they’re consuming 🕵️‍♀️ Here are 4 quick steps to teach media literacy in the classroom Learn more about media literacy here ➡️ https://t.co/SpC184cFFt https://t.co/dJOoZoA8ou
March 10, 2023, 8:34 PM

The best lessons start with the best content.

Ready to bring great instructional content to your students?

Contact Sales