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• Visit Gradescope Accessibility Information and Resources for information on Gradescope's accessibility features. Contact Gradescope Support at help@gradescope.com for further assistance.
• For accessibility or usability assistance with using Gradescope, please contact learnuwsupport@wisc.edu.

Accessibility and usability barriers 

The following barriers were identified in an accessibility evaluation of Gradescope’s instructor-facing interface used for grading assignments. 

Keyboard navigation barriers may limit accessibility for some users, such as people with motor disabilities

The tool’s grading interface has many interactive elements that can be tedious to navigate around. While there are several keyboard shortcuts, they are not always intuitive or easy to use. Additionally, there is not a keyboard shortcut to quickly get from the navigation toolbar at the bottom of the page to the grading panel on the right. 

There are some instances where the keyboard focus order is illogical and makes navigation difficult. 

Screen reader barriers may limit accessibility for some users, such as people who are blind or have low vision

None of the keyboard shortcuts work when a screen reader is running. This makes navigation tedious and difficult, particularly accessing the Next and Previous buttons in the navigation toolbar. Keyboard shortcuts are also not announced to screen reader users.

Some interactive elements are not labeled clearly or at all, such as buttons in the grading/markup toolbar. 

When reviewing grades and student data, some visual content such as histograms are not announced with sufficient context or data labels, which could make it difficult or impossible for screen reader users to understand the data. 

When grading a programming assignment, code is not announced by a screen reader on the grading page itself. Instead, the user must go to the View Submission page to hear the code announced. This may not be obvious to the user and could make the grading process tedious and frustrating. 

The tool may not be fully compatible with all screen readers. For example, math notation in digital assignments is announced by JAWS, but not by NVDA. 

Magnification and reflow barriers may limit accessibility for some users, such as people who have low vision

When the page is magnified to 250% or higher, the grading panel becomes increasingly difficult to navigate and use due to fixed elements taking up a large portion of the screen. The grading panel also cannot be resized or collapsed by the user, which could cause significant problems for users who may need to magnify the page to 300 or 400%.

When the page is magnified to 200% or higher, there are several instances where the user must horizontal scroll in order to view all page content. 

Low contrast may limit accessibility for some users, such as people who are colorblind or have low vision

There are some instances of low color contrast. For example, when setting up answer groups before grading individual assignments, the dark green buttons have a black focus outline, which has a 2.3:1 contrast ratio and could make it difficult for users to tell where their focus is.