Developing Accessible, Multimodal Interactive STEM Simulations with SceneryStack
338 | Fri 02 Aug 3 p.m.–3:45 p.m.
Presented by
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Brett is an Inclusive Experience Researcher at the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder. The PhET project creates free and open-source interactive science and math simulations for use by teachers and students all around the world. Brett is also the Community Manager of the new SceneryStack developer community, based around the web development libraries used to create PhET Interactive Simulations and the shared interest in making learning enjoyable for all. SceneryStack is unique for its focus on accessibility features, such as screen reader accessible descriptions, for making inclusive, interactive web experiences.
Abstract
SceneryStack is a recently created open-source community built around a [collection of HTML5/TypeScript development libraries](https://scenerystack.github.io/community/guides/scenerystack_list/) in the Model-View-Controller framework that can be used **together or separately** to create multimodal and accessible, web interactives. SceneryStack libraries are used to create PhET Interactive Simulations, free and open-source science and math simulations with hundreds of millions of uses worldwide, as well as their growing set of Inclusive Features. SceneryStack includes support for robust accessibility features like dynamic and navigable screen-reader descriptions, dynamic and customizable descriptions through browser text-to-speech, sounds and sonifications, pan and zoom, alternative input, and more. SceneryStack offers libraries specifically tailored to interactive, educational simulation development, in addition to being suitable for general web interactive development. The goals of SceneryStack are to create more accessible and enjoyable STEM learning interactives, as well as supporting developers to create more inclusive dynamic web content broadly. We share about the motivation to create SceneryStack, propelled by teacher-developers, and the vision for the future of the open-source community.
SceneryStack is a recently created open-source community built around a [collection of HTML5/TypeScript development libraries](https://scenerystack.github.io/community/guides/scenerystack_list/) in the Model-View-Controller framework that can be used **together or separately** to create multimodal and accessible, web interactives. SceneryStack libraries are used to create PhET Interactive Simulations, free and open-source science and math simulations with hundreds of millions of uses worldwide, as well as their growing set of Inclusive Features. SceneryStack includes support for robust accessibility features like dynamic and navigable screen-reader descriptions, dynamic and customizable descriptions through browser text-to-speech, sounds and sonifications, pan and zoom, alternative input, and more. SceneryStack offers libraries specifically tailored to interactive, educational simulation development, in addition to being suitable for general web interactive development. The goals of SceneryStack are to create more accessible and enjoyable STEM learning interactives, as well as supporting developers to create more inclusive dynamic web content broadly. We share about the motivation to create SceneryStack, propelled by teacher-developers, and the vision for the future of the open-source community.