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Accessibility

Accessibility statement

Last updated October 30, 2026.

SimuSign is built for Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing users together, and we treat the accessibility of the product itself as seriously as the accessibility it tries to provide. We use the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) as our standard across the site: semantic structure, keyboard operability, visible focus, live-region announcements for streaming states, and contrast-checked text. In October 2026 we reviewed the site ourselves against WCAG 2.2 and are fixing what we found. We have not yet had an independent accessibility audit, and this page will say so until we have.

What SimuSign does

  • In the studio, each live sentence is also shown as text: the English words that were heard, and the signs in ASL order, with questions, negation, topics and conditionals marked in words above the signs.

  • Screen readers hear the English words as they are recognized. The session's state (listening, signing, paused, finished) is said once it has held for a few seconds, and is not repeated.

  • While the keyboard focus is inside the signer, H turns the heard line on and off.

  • The Floating Signer opens with the keyboard focus inside it; Tab moves through its controls and Escape closes it.

  • The session's transcript (the English words that were heard) can be copied or downloaded as a text file from the Session panel.

  • If your device is set to reduce motion, the ASL and English lines under the signer do not slide or fade.

  • The live-minutes meter is announced to screen readers and never relies on color alone.

  • If live signing is not available to you, the Sign a sentence tab signs typed text, and the transcript keeps the words that were heard.

Known limitations we're working on

  • The signing avatar requires WebGL; devices without it see an explicit failure message rather than a silent blank.

  • The site needs JavaScript: without it, the studio and the account page show only a loading message.

  • The floating pop-out signer opens a full always-on-top window in Chrome and Edge 116+. Safari gets a video-only Picture-in-Picture fallback instead; Firefox supports neither, so the button does not appear there. It is not offered on phones.

  • Light theme only for now; a dark theme is planned.

  • Voice features depend on browser microphone/tab-capture support and work best in desktop Chromium browsers.

  • On a phone, SimuSign listens through the phone's microphone to the sound in the room. Tab audio is a desktop feature, in Chrome or Edge.

  • The signing itself is in Early Access: the signer can mis-sign a word or sign words out of order, and live signing can fall behind the speech. Our limits page says what to expect.

What SimuSign is not

SimuSign is not a replacement for a live interpreter, and it is not offered as an auxiliary aid or an accommodation. If you need communication access for medical, legal, emergency, workplace or other important matters, ask for a qualified ASL interpreter. What the signer does today is on our limits page.

Feedback

If anything in SimuSign is hard to use with your assistive technology — or if our signing itself is the accessibility problem — tell us through or at [email protected]; we read every message and aim to reply within five business days. Reports from Deaf and hard-of-hearing users get first priority.