[community] Another Accessible PhET Simulation!

[Taliesin Smith]

Dear Inclusive Community,

I have some big news, the now accessible PhET Simulation, Balloons and Static Electricity (version 1.4.0) is live on the PhET website. Here is the link:

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/balloons-and-static-electricity/latest/balloons-and-static-electricity_en.html <https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/balloons-and-static-electricity/latest/balloons-and-static-electricity_en.html>

For those of you on this list who do not know me, I started working on this simulation during my masters degree in OCAD's Inclusive Design Program in 2015.

Its accessibility features include full keyboard access and a fully described interactive experience when using a screen reader.

A lot has been iterated on since my early investigations with 13 blind participants. Those early interviews provided unmeasurable understanding and inspiration for the work that continued after I graduated.

Thanks to all my participants, student colleagues (Delta cohort), professors and instructors, and designers and developers at the IDRC who listened to early prototypes and discussed design challenges. 

And of course, this achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and wonderful insights of PhET software developer, Jesse Greenberg, and the superb research and design guidance of Emily Moore, director of PhET Simulations Research and Accessibility, and Clayton Lewis, professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

Please enjoy and share Balloons and Static Electricity,
Taliesin