Accessibility Information
The Starfall Education Foundation is committed to providing access for children with disabilities. The accessible Index for children is the result of a four-year project to convert activities from an older Flash player model to a newer technology, HTML5. Our goal is to provide accessible educational activities directly on our website for computers as well as tablets and mobile devices without the need to download or install software or apps.
We depend on your feedback to improve our website, so please contact us with comments or if you need help.
The Main Starfall Website
Closed Captions can be turned on or off for song lyrics on the Main Starfall Website here:
After turning on captions, they will appear for songs and nursery rhymes on the Main Starfall Website.
The Enhanced Accessible Index for Children
For children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, or mobility impairments, Starfall provides a separate enhanced index. It is easy to navigate with custom-designed activities that are screen-reader compatible, keyboard accessible, and completely captioned. Please read the information below before going to the:
Caption Size and Video Play Speed
You may set caption size up to 200%, video speed up to 200%, and adjust other features including a mute key on Accessibility Options.
Keyboard and Dual-Switch Devices
The Enhanced Accessible Index for Children is designed to function with two keys on a keyboard or dual-switch device:
- Tab key to navigate.
- Enter key to select.
If a keyboard is used, Shift-Tab can be used to navigate backward on most systems. Note that preferences must be adjusted on Mac X to enable tab key functionality on Safari and Firefox browsers.
Optional Keyboard Controls
In addition to the basic keyboard controls above, Starfall also provides optional interactive keyboard controls:
- Space-bar to toggle stop/start *
- Right/left arrow key to move forward/backward *
* Note that screen readers may require bypass keys for these optional controls to function.
Screen Readers
We currently test with Windows 10 NVDA. We have verified compatibility with other screen readers such as JAWS (2019 version), Microsoft Narrator on Windows 10, ChromeVox on Chromebook, VoiceOver on Mac X, VoiceOver on iPad with Bluetooth keyboard, and TalkBack on Android with Bluetooth keyboard.
Audio Descriptions
Starfall's Learn to Read books, containing our core phonics sequence, have been updated with audio descriptions of visual information. The audio description is included in the captions. Special care was taken to make these descriptions exciting and informative for sighted children as well. We invite your feedback and suggestions as we update additional books with audio descriptions.
Simple Navigation for Children
In order to make navigation as simple as possible for disabled children, we avoid unnecessary links. This is why we do not include a link back to this page from the Enhanced Accessible Index for Children.
Transcripts & Visual Descriptions
Transcripts with descriptions of visuals are located on a separate index so children aren't confused with too many links on the Enhanced Accessible Index. We need your feedback as we expand the transcripts in the coming months. See our preliminary transcripts and descriptions here:
Transcripts & Visual Descriptions Index
We need your feedback!
As mentioned above, please contact us if you have questions or recommendations regarding Starfall's accessibility features.