The standard we hold it to
Bugle is built to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA, which include every Level AA requirement of WCAG 2.1. It has not yet had an independent audit; when it has, the result will be published here.
Our own assessment, requirement by requirement, finds 28 of the 55 supported, 21 supported in part, and 5 that do not apply to the service; 1 not yet evaluated. Before every release the service is checked automatically against the WCAG rules on the screens each kind of person uses, and our full report, with what is not yet true and our plan for it, is available on request.
What you can change
- Text size and contrast. Choose Display in the top bar, on any screen, an examination included: larger text, or stronger contrast. It stays as you set it.
- Hear the screen. Read aloud, in the top bar, reads any screen to you, and can read each one as it opens.
- Nothing you change alters what you are asked.
What is built in
- Nothing is only heard. Radio traffic in a simulation is written out on screen as it is spoken, and an examination can be sat with the sound off.
- The keyboard. The written examination works from the keyboard alone, with a visible focus outline, and our tests sit it that way. The simulation’s radio and a role-play conversation can be held to talk from the keyboard, or typed instead of spoken; walking the simulation and the other exercises through by keyboard alone is still on our plan.
- Color is never the only signal on a candidate’s screen: answered questions are ticked, low time is said in words, and severe fire conditions are named. Text is checked against the WCAG contrast ratios before every release.
- Time is told, not only shown. With a screen reader you hear how long is left at fifteen, five and one minute, rather than every second. A sitting is never ended because you have been still: reading one long question signs nobody out.
- Accommodations are applied by the examination itself. Extra time lengthens the clock. In a simulation your department chooses, when it grants the extra time, whether the incident is stretched to match — it runs slower by your multiplier, so everything in it comes later and every window to act in is longer — or runs in real time with longer to finish; the simulation’s screen tells you which. Breaks with the clock stopped are taken on screen, and the examination leaves the screen while you are away. You are shown how much time you have, never why.
Asking for an accommodation
Ask for it from your own page in Bugle, under Accommodations, well before the date: say what you need in order to sit fairly — never a diagnosis. Your department decides it under its own authority and tells you; the proctor is given what to provide, and at the sitting confirms that it was. Only the people who act on an accommodation can read it, and every reading is recorded.
Known limitations
- Not every picture in a simulation has a written description yet, and a floor plan’s text summary is less complete than the drawing itself.
- Breaks on screen are for parts you sit at your own pace. A simulation or an oral board runs in real time: breaks there are between parts, or given by your proctor.
- Text size in the service goes to 150%. Beyond that, use your browser’s zoom where your department’s setup allows it.
- The secure desktop client relies on your computer’s own assistive technology, and never counts the assistive technology it knows of as a program to be closed. If your department has approved a screen reader for you, the client leaves screen readers and magnifiers it knows by name (NVDA, JAWS, Narrator, VoiceOver, ZoomText and Windows Magnifier) in front of the exam when they take the window, and your record shows each time as allowed. Otherwise it takes the window back when another takes it, and allows one display. On the day, the proctor can allow a second display, another program by its name, or the window left alone, for your sitting, with the reason on your record. A department requires the secure client form by form: try yours with your department well before the examination date, and tell them what your software needs.
- People who use screen readers every day have not yet tested the service for us. Until they have, some things our automated checks cannot see may still be wrong: tell us.
Tell us
If anything in Bugle stops you taking part, tell your department and write to us at charles@bugleassessments.com. We treat it as a defect, not a request.