UserWay Transforms Accessibility For
BlueSky School

Remediation summary for BlueSky School website
  • INDUSTRY

    Education

  • CHALLENGE

    To improve accessibility for students with special needs

  • SOLUTION

    Install the UserWay AI-powered Widget on the school website

  • RESULTS

    Accessibility options for students with dyslexia, color blindness, and other disabilities all in just one widget

Client Background

BlueSky School was founded in 2000 with a mission to make free online education available to all Minnesota residents in grades 6-12. It is the first Minnesota-based charter school with a completely online curriculum and leads its peers in student success and innovation.

Students, staff, and parents work together to select a program that works best for each individual’s learning style, skill level, grade level, and credit requirements. The program is then uniquely tailored to each student’s interests and personal needs. Students come from all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds across the state.

BlueSky offers Minnesota students in grades 6-12 a world-class online education.

Photo of Ben Haensel

“BlueSky School was searching for a powerful accessibility tool that would not only meet our compliance needs but also provide a fully accessible end-user experience on our Moodle LMS site. UserWay checked all the boxes.”

Ben HaenselTechnology Infrastructure Specialist,
BlueSky School

The Challenge

Accessibility for Different Kinds of Users

As BlueSky’s online schooling platform accepted more students, its leaders knew students within the special education program would greatly benefit from having text read to them. A number of students, including those with mild forms of dyslexia or color blindness, struggled with keeping their place when reading text online.

The leadership team wanted a simple solution that would make current and new materials automatically accessible for students. Additionally, the school’s leaders didn’t want a service that tracked or required personal information from students to function.

The Solution

Efficiency

Improved Accessibility and Student Success

By implementing the UserWay AI-powered widget, the BlueSky School avoided manually adjusting the code across all the pages on its learning platform. By removing the barriers to website accessibility, BlueSky helped its students focus on their studies instead of solving issues with the website interface.

UserWay widget in use in the BlueSky School website
Page display customization in BlueSky website

Customizability

Ease of Use

The UserWay widget simplifies navigation and page display customization. The overlay is always easy for students to find in the corner of the screen. All of the accessibility tools are available as soon as each page loads.
In addition, anyone experiencing problems reading can try the dyslexia-friendly font.

Compliance

Respect for user preferences

BlueSky students will never need to select their disabilities from a list to make pages adapt to their needs. All of the accessibility tools are available as soon as each page loads.

Remediation history for BlueSky School website

Preserves
User Privacy

Fast Time
to Market

Intuitive User
Interface

Reduced Workload,
Reduces TCO

Improved
User Experience