1. Our commitment

GradeOptics should work for every instructor, grader, and student who uses it, including people who use a keyboard instead of a mouse, a screen reader, magnification, voice control, or settings that reduce motion. Our target is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA, the standard most schools, colleges, and universities ask for.

We have not established conformance to WCAG 2.2 level AA. Our preliminary checks cover selected pages and states. They do not replace an evaluation of complete workflows with assistive technologies. The barriers we know about are listed below under Known limitations.

2. What the Service does

• Keyboard. The pages and states checked in our review support keyboard navigation. A “Skip to content” link comes first, and checked pop-ups keep focus inside them until they close. Grading shortcuts, such as a number key for a rubric item, work only while you are not typing in a field, and the “Single-key shortcuts” switch beside them turns off every shortcut that is one key on its own. On the paper, a selected box moves with the arrow keys, grows or shrinks with Shift and the arrow keys, and moves to another page with Page Up and Page Down.
• Visible focus. Our styles provide a keyboard focus outline, and our checks look for visible focus on the controls they visit.
• Screen-reader support. The checked pages use headings and landmarks, named controls, text alternatives for exam-page images, and form error and progress markup. These checks do not establish that all messages are announced correctly. We still need representative screen-reader testing of complete workflows.
• Words, not colour alone. Every status, such as “Approved” or “Needs review,” is written out, so no meaning depends on seeing a colour. In a marked-up essay, each passage’s verdict also has its own icon and underline (solid for good, dashed for could be stronger, wavy for wrong or missing), its word is read out with it, and its note opens on focus as well as on hover. Where a passage is also drawn on the student’s scan, it has the same underline there, its verdict word is read out first, and its note opens on focus, hover, or a tap; the typed essay beside it carries the same passages, and the marks can be turned off.
• Contrast. Our app colour tokens are tested against text contrast targets of 4.5 to 1 and field edge and focus targets of 3 to 1. Browser checks sample rendered text; they are not a complete assessment of every control, image, placeholder, state or provider screen.
• Zoom and small screens. The checked pages reflow at a width of 320 pixels without scrolling sideways. This narrow-width test approximates reflow at 400% zoom; actual browser zoom and mobile assistive technologies still need testing. Our control styles target a size or spacing of at least 24 pixels, except the handles for resizing a box on the paper.
• Reduced motion. If your device is set to reduce motion, animations and smooth scrolling stop, and every progress indicator still says in words what is happening.

3. Known limitations

These parts do not yet fully meet the standard. We are working on them and will update this page as they change.

• Scanned pages are pictures. An exam page is an image of what a student wrote or printed, so a screen reader cannot read the writing on it. For instructors and graders, the text the AI read from each answer is shown as text beside the page. Students see their marks, the rubric items applied, and comments as text beside their pages; the writing on the pages themselves is not available as text.
• Boxes on the paper. Moving or resizing a question’s box on Outline is done by dragging it, or with the keyboard; there is not yet a way to do it with single clicks or taps. Placing a note on a scan is done by pointing, and every note is also listed as text with its page.
• Hints on hover. The short explanations shown when you point at some buttons, such as Ask AI again, disappear when the pointer moves onto them. Escape hides them, and each is also read out as the button’s description.
• Smaller issues. Our review found a few smaller problems not fixed yet: some messages that confirm an action, such as “Saved,” appear with their text already in place, which some screen readers do not read out; after a few actions, such as confirming a group of answers, the keyboard focus goes back to the top of the page; and the page for checking how a PDF was split skips a heading level.
• Sign-in and identity verification come from Clerk. Our local review found that its verification pop-up has a visible heading but no accessible dialog name. This remains a provider issue to follow up. MFA enrollment and recovery, passkeys, password-manager use and actual error announcements have not yet been assessed through complete workflows.
• Downloaded files. A downloaded scan is the file as it was uploaded, without the headings and reading order of an accessible PDF.
• Not yet independently tested. Our checks, described below, are automated and by review of the code. The Service has not yet been evaluated by an independent auditor or tested from start to finish by people who use screen readers, so there may be problems we have not found.

4. How we checked

This statement was updated on October 6, 2026. The evidence includes:

• the September 27, 2026 review of the Service’s pages and components against WCAG 2.2 level AA, which fixed problems found in colour contrast, form field edges, target sizes, and motion;
• an automated check that runs on the instructor, grader, and student pages and the public pages, at desktop width and at 320 pixels, and fails if a form field has no label, a control has no name, text is below the contrast ratio, a page does not have exactly one main heading, the keyboard focus is not visible, or the page scrolls sideways. This broad check excludes Clerk’s contrast and focus styles; and
• a local authentication review on October 6, 2026, checking the sign-in card’s rendered text and focus styles, native required-field validation, narrow layouts and cancellation of verification. Real verification delivery and completion were not tested. These checks do not establish screen-reader usability or WCAG conformance.

The Service is built with standard HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and WAI-ARIA, and is designed for current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. The automated checks run in Chrome.

5. Report a barrier or ask for an alternative

If something in GradeOptics does not work for you, or you need information from it in another format, email support@gradeoptics.com. Tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and the browser and assistive technology you use, if any. We reply within 5 business days and will work with you, and with your instructor or school where needed, to give you the same information another way.

Students can also ask their instructor, who can share marks and comments in another format. Schools evaluating GradeOptics can write to the same address for more detail on how each WCAG success criterion is met.

6. Contact

Accessibility questions: support@gradeoptics.com. GradeOptics, Michigan, United States. How we handle your information is described in our Privacy Policy.