Accessibility

Statement of Commitment for SeekBeak

Here at SeekBeak, we prides ourselves on being one of the world leaders in accessibility for virtual tours and virtual experiences.

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of our digital materials. Please let us know if you encounter any barriers and get in touch with us!

Conformance Status

SeekBeak works with CAST.org, the global leader in the inclusive education movement, as well as an external web accessibility vendor who has verified that we meet or exceed applicable WCAG guidelines for our content viewers.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) explain how to make web content accessible for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. We aim to meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 at the AA level, which means that our digital materials would be usable and understandable for most people. We are continually improving to meet and exceed this standard.

We strive to follow best practices based on requirements outlined in the “Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards,” authorized by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, as well as recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

SeekBeak aims to be in compliance with all requirements for the web accessibility rule under Title I and Title II of the ADA as well as all digital accessibility requirements under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

SeekBeak content provides links and embeds third-party websites that may not conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The conformance status of these external websites is outside of our control.

Policy Scopes

Marketing Website

Our information and marketing website is compatible with most modern web browsers, including Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Brave.

Skip Navigation Link

Each page on the site begins with a “skip navigation” link. Choosing this link moves the user directly to the main content of the page, bypassing the long list of navigational links which appears on every page. This permits faster and easier navigation for people using screen readers, or for anyone using a keyboard rather than a mouse to navigate the site.

Alternative Text

All images on this site are accompanied by brief alt text that identifies the image or its function. If you are using a browser, alt text is visible to non-screen reader users only if the browser’s automatic image loading feature is turned off. Long descriptions are provided for images where appropriate. If you find an image that is missing alt text, please let us know.

Additional Technologies

The option to resize text is available in most browsers with a keyboard shortcut:

• Control (or Command on the Mac) and + (plus) to zoom in
• Control (or Command on the Mac) and – (minus) to zoom out
• Control (or Command on the Mac) and 0 (zero) to reset the zoom level to the default (100%).

You can also find these options in the browser’s menus, usually under View.

Should you need to use a more feature-rich screen reader to access our site, a number of free options are available:

• VoiceOver is built-in on Mac computers and iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad
• Narrator is built-in on Windows computers and tablets, and NVDA is available as a free download as well
• ChromeVox is available on Chromebooks
• TalkBack is built-in on Android phones and tablets, and a version of it is also available on Amazon’s Fire tablets (called VoiceView)

Dynamic ADA Compliant Text Viewer

Display your 360º image, flat images, 3D Models, and Gaussian Splats based Snaps in a text based, ADA compliant, screen reader interface. The platform takes all the data from all the Snaps you've created, including file uploads, Hotspots, titles, descriptions, links, embeds, and images, to create an accessible, dynamic document in text format.

Perfect for screen readers, it's still all your content, just broken down into an easy to read format that doesn't require clicking on Hotspots, or moving virtual cameras and images around.

As SeekBeak generates these documents on demand, you don't have to create two versions of your content, or worry about the screen reader versions being out of date.

The Text Viewer links are separate from the Public View Links, so you can send people directly to a Text Viewer, without needing them to enter your primary content first.

360º and Flat Image Viewers

Keyboard Navigation

All primary controls, including the Text Navigation Dropdown, Thumbnail Navigation, Information Header and Navigation Bar items are accessible via the tab and spacebar style interaction.

Hotspot Keyboard Navigation

Hotspots can be cycled through and brought into focus, in both 360º equirectangular images, or flat images, by using the < and > keys, also known as , and ..

Hotspot Keyboard Activation / Toggle

Hotspots focused on via keyboard can then be activated / triggered by using the spacebar. If the Hotspot opens a SeekBeak popup, pressing spacebar again will close the popup.

Popup Dialog Boxes

Dialog boxes can be closed by either tabbing to the X button, or by pressing the ESC key.

Images Slideshow Popups

Images in the slideshow popup can be cycled through by using the ← and → keys. Image slideshow popups can be closed by either tabbing to the x button, or by pressing the ESC key.

Keyboard Camera Movement

The camera in a 360º image can be panned in all directions by using the ← → ↑ ↓ keys.

Navigation Bar, Thumbnail Navigation, Text Dropdown Navigation

These, (if enabled), all support the tab key to cycle through any of the dynamic items. Pressing spacebar will activate the corresponding item.

Joystick / Game Controller Support

SeekBeak supports the use of Bluetooth or wired video game controllers for navigation, including the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Turning on the controller will display a popup asking if you want to use it with SeekBeak. Once activated, you can use the left thumbstick to pan the camera around, and click the primary button to activate / toggle Hotspots when they are under the reticle.

3D Model / Gaussian Splat Viewer

Hotspot Keyboard Navigation

Hotspots can be cycled through by using the < and > keys, also known as , and .. In 3D Snaps, the camera will rotate to 'look at' the Hotspot, but will stay in the current position.

Critically, the camera then changes its ’target’ to that Hotspot, so any camera motion after the Hotspot is selected uses the Hotspot as a pivot point. This allows the user to then use the arrow keys to move the model “around" the Hotspot, so if the Hotspot is behind the 3d object, it’s trivial to rotate the model using the arrow keys to bring the Hotspot into view.

The Hotspot doesn’t have to be in view to be triggered via the spacebar, it the Hotspot was selected by keys, the spacebar will trigger it regardless of visibility.

As SeekBeak also has triggers which can move the camera to different locations, we've found this solution to be a good compromise compared to other options, and the infinite variations that a 3D world brings.

Hotspot Keyboard Activation / Toggle

Hotspots focused on via keyboard can then be activated / triggered by using the spacebar. If the Hotspot opens a SeekBeak popup, pressing spacebar again will close the popup.

Keyboard Navigation

All primary controls, including the Text Navigation Dropdown, Thumbnail Navigation, Information Header and Navigation Bar items are accessible via the tab and spacebar style interaction.

Popup Dialog Boxes

Dialog boxes can be closed by either tabbing to the X button, or by pressing the ESC key.

Images Slideshow Popups

Images in the slideshow popup can be cycled through by using the ← and → keys. Image slideshow popups can be closed by either tabbing to the x button, or by pressing the ESC key.

Keyboard Camera Movement

The camera used in a 3d Model can be set to various modes: "Orbit", "Orbit + Move", "Fly" and "First Person". The arrow keys will automatically map to the correct mode, allowing various methods of movement with the same ← → ↑ ↓ keys.

In First Person camera mode, SeekBeak also allows users access to an onscreen joystick to allow for smooth movement using touch based devices, or even mouse users. To activate the onscreen joystick, simply touch, (or click), and hold on any part of the screen, and the joystick will appear underneath.

Navigation Bar, Thumbnail Navigation, Text Dropdown Navigation

These, (if enabled), all support the tab key to cycle through any of the dynamic items. Pressing spacebar will activate the corresponding item.

Joystick / Game Controller Support

SeekBeak supports the use of Bluetooth or wired video game controllers for navigation, including the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Turning on the controller will display a popup asking if you want to use it with SeekBeak.

As 3d Models in SeekBeak allow for different camera modes, the left thumb stick will emulate the movement type for the active camera mode, allowing the user to fly over the model, orbit, or walk around in a first person environment.

Click and hold the primary button to activate Hotspots when they are under the reticle. To de-activate the Hotspot, simply release the primary button.