Accessibility

SchoolCAD is made for every student in a TAS class, including students with disability. This page says what it does, the standard it aims for, what is not finished yet, and how to tell us about anything that gets in your way.

The standard#

SchoolCAD aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA, the level the Australian Human Rights Commission recommends under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, and the level that also covers WCAG 2.1 AA (the US ADA rule for schools) and WCAG 2.0 AA (the NSW Department of Education's own sites). We check the app, every tool's dialog and these Help pages with automated tests (axe) on every change, and by hand with the keyboard alone. Testing with people who use screen readers and other assistive technology every day is part of the beta. Where a part of a 3D design program cannot fully meet a guideline yet, this page says so below.

Settings for you#

Open Settings (⚙) → Accessibility:

• Text size: the menus, toolbar, feature list, dialogs and Help bigger (up to 150%), with the 3D view the same size. The browser's own zoom (Ctrl and +) works too, up to 400%: the page fits the window and does not scroll sideways.
• High contrast, Reduce motion, an Easy-read font (Atkinson Hyperlegible), More space between letters, words and lines, and Underline links.
• Theme (Settings → Display): light, dark or the same as your computer.
• Language (Settings → General): Chinese and other languages beside the English, with words read aloud.

SchoolCAD also follows your computer's own settings for dark mode and reduced motion.

Using the keyboard#

Everything works without a mouse:

• Tab moves between the top bar, the toolbar, the feature list, the 3D view and the dialog that is open. A Skip to the 3D view link is the first thing Tab reaches.
• Search tools (` or Alt+C) starts any tool by name, and you do not need to spell it right. In the list, Alt+R reads the highlighted tool aloud and Alt+H opens its Help page.
• In the feature list, the arrow keys move between features (Home and End to the first and last), Enter edits one, Delete deletes it and Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ moves it up or down the tree.
• In the 3D view, the arrow keys turn the model, Ctrl+Shift and the arrow keys move it, and Z / Shift+Z zoom. Shift+1 to Shift+7 look from the front, top, side and so on.
• The keyboard pointer (Alt+P) does what a mouse click in the 3D view does. A crosshair appears in the view: move it with the arrow keys (Shift for bigger steps, Ctrl for small ones), press Enter or Space to click (picking a face, an edge or a plane, or a point while sketching), Shift+Enter to add to the selection, and the menu key or Shift+F10 for the right-click menu. A line at the foot of the view says what is under it (screen readers read it too). Esc or Alt+P puts it away.
• Right-click menus open with the menu key or Shift+F10; the arrow keys move through them and Esc closes them.
• Every number in a dialog can be typed. Anything you can do by dragging an arrow on the model, you can also do by typing its value.

The full list is in Keyboard shortcuts.

Screen readers#

SchoolCAD is built to work with screen readers: NVDA, JAWS and Narrator on Windows, VoiceOver on a Mac or iPad, and ChromeVox on a Chromebook. Buttons, fields and menus have names, the toolbar and feature list are labelled, messages are announced, and Search tools and the keyboard pointer say what they found. The 3D model itself is a picture: the feature list, the parts list and Measure say in words what is in it.

Reading, spelling and listening#

• Search tools finds a tool however it is spelt (chmfr, extrood, how do I make a hole), says when it is guessing, listens for a spoken tool name, and reads the tool and what it does aloud.
• With nothing typed, Search tools shows the kinds of tool as pictures.
• The Guide says what to do next in short steps, and the language list reads words aloud.

Colour#

Colour is not the only way SchoolCAD tells you something important: a sketch's lines are blue while they can still move and black once they are fixed, and the Guide also says in words whether the sketch is fully defined or how many dimensions are still needed. Feature problems have a message as well as a colour, and links can be underlined (Underline links).

Not finished yet#

We are working on these, and say here what to do in the meantime:

Tell us about a problem#

If anything in SchoolCAD is hard for you to use, email hello@schoolcad.com with what you were doing and the browser and assistive technology you use (for example Chrome with NVDA). We aim to reply within five school days, and fix problems that stop a student working first.

This statement was last reviewed on 4 November 2026.