Accessibility
Every learner can get in, follow along, and take part.
Online learning only works when the person on the other side of the screen can reach it — a second-grader on a school Chromebook, a graduate student rewatching a lecture at midnight, a new hire who’d rather type than speak. So in Pencil Spaces, accessibility isn’t a settings page. It’s how the room works: nothing to install, views whoever’s teaching can lead, controls that answer to the keyboard, and classes that are still there next week.
- 0downloads or installs to join a class
- 30+interface languages, right-to-left included
- 39keyboard shortcuts, from Pen to Raise hand
- 24/7live support by chat or email
Find what you need
Start from how you work best.
No need to name a condition. Pick what sounds like you and go straight to what helps — including what doesn’t work well yet.
If you use a keyboard instead of a mouse
39 documented shortcuts cover tools, boards, panels, and the call. Freehand drawing still needs a pointer.
If you use a screen reader
Our audit tested the web app with NVDA and a keyboard alone. We haven’t published results for JAWS, VoiceOver, or TalkBack.
If you follow better in text, or work with an interpreter
Chat runs beside every call, any video tile can be pinned large, and cloud recordings of English-language classes come with a transcript. Live captions are on the way.
If small text or bright screens are hard
Zoom the board from the keyboard, swap bright white for a softer background, and enlarge the whole app to 200% in your browser without losing content.
If busy screens or a fast pace make it hard to focus
Child Mode trims the toolbar to five tools, a visible countdown shows the time left, and recordings let you rewatch at your own pace.
If you’d rather type, point, or vote than speak
Raise a hand, message the host privately, add a sticky note with your name on it, or answer a poll.
Who it’s for
One classroom for every kind of learning.
The same room serves a second-grade reading group, a graduate seminar, and a compliance training — each with the controls that fit.
K-12
Schools and districts
Child Mode for younger students, Clever sign-in, FERPA and COPPA compliance, and nothing to install on the Chromebooks already in the building.
Higher education
Colleges and universities
Recordings with transcripts for review, Lead and Follow for walking a room through a proof, breakout rooms for discussion sections, and integrations with your LMS.
Professional learning
Training and continuing education
Single sign-on, AI summaries of every recorded class, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA — and no software for IT to approve.
Tutoring and intervention
One-to-one and small groups
Grid view for face-to-face work, private boards, and the web tools you already teach with — Blending Boards, IXL, and more — live on the board.
01Get in
Getting in should never be the hard part.
Lost passwords, blocked installs, and locked-down devices end classes before they start. Pencil Spaces opens from one link, in the browser a learner already has.
Nothing to install
Everything runs in the browser. Learners click one link and they’re in — no app, no download, no IT ticket.
Runs on the devices people already have
From high-end laptops to entry-level Chromebooks, plus phones and tablets.
Join as a guest
Learners and guest speakers can join without creating an account, so a forgotten password never costs a class.
Guest access guideSingle sign-on
When learners do have accounts, they sign in with Google, Clever, or another SSO option instead of a password.
Automatic tech check
Send one link ahead of time. Learners test their mic, camera, and device on their own, and you can see everyone’s connection quality during class.
Built for weak connections
Audio and video adjust automatically, so classes hold up on slower or unstable networks.
30+ interface languages
Each person chooses their own language and can switch any time. Right-to-left languages are fully supported.
Language settings guide
Open the link
In Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox — on a laptop, Chromebook, tablet, or phone.
Check mic and camera
- Microphone
- Camera
- Device
Join as a guest
No account to create, no password to remember.
Interface language
- English
- Español
- Français
- Italiano
- 한국어
- 中文
- العربية
- and 20+ more
02Follow along
Everyone on the same page. Literally.
On a shared board, “look here” only works if everyone can find here. These tools put every learner on the same view, at a size and layout they can work with.
Lead
Bring everyone to your view, so nobody is hunting across the board for the slide, problem, or diagram you’re on.
Lead guideFollow
Anyone can follow anyone. A learner can ride along with the presenter’s view, then step away just by moving the board.
Follow guideZoom from the keyboard
Zoom in, back to 100%, or out to fit the whole board, each with a single keystroke.
Moving and zooming guideBoard backgrounds
Swap bright white for a color a learner finds easier on the eyes, or use graph paper for math and ruled lines for handwriting. Set it once as the default for the whole Space.
Board background guideFaces, when faces matter
In one-to-one calls, Grid view puts both faces side by side — for language practice, pronunciation, or any conversation where expressions matter. Pin or enlarge any video tile, or pop the video out while you work in another tab. Pin a sign language interpreter’s video so it stays large on your screen.
Video layouts guideNoise cancellation
Background noise and echo are filtered out, so voices come through clearly.
Noise cancellation guide
Whiteboard
Board and faces together
Gallery
Everyone’s face, nothing else
Pinned
One speaker or screen, enlarged
Grid, one-to-one
Both faces, side by side
Fullscreen and picture-in-picture are a click away too. Each person picks the layout that works for them — it doesn’t change anyone else’s screen.
03Take part
Everyone gets a way into the conversation.
Not every learner wants to unmute, and not every learner uses a mouse. Pencil Spaces gives people more than one way to answer, ask, and show their work.
The room answers to the keyboard.
On the board
- Pen
- P
- Highlighter
- ShiftP
- Eraser
- E
- Text
- T
- Sticky note
- N
- Undo
- CtrlZ
Getting around
- Move the board
- ↑↓←→
- Zoom in / out
- +−
- Zoom to fit
- Shift1
- Next board
- AltN
- Boards panel
- AltB
- Exit fullscreen
- Esc
In the call
- Mute / unmute
- AltM
- Camera on / off
- AltV
- Raise hand
- AltH
- Chat panel
- AltC
- Participants
- AltU
- Apps panel
- AltA
Private and group chat
Message the host privately or the whole room — for anyone who’d rather type than speak. Chats are saved.
Stylus, finger, or mouse
Write on tablets and phones with a stylus or a finger. External writing pads work too.
Sticky notes with names
Every note is tagged with the person who wrote it, so quiet contributions get seen.
Sticky notes guidePolls and celebrations
Built-in polls give everyone a vote without speaking up, and stickers mark a win for the whole room to see.
Polls and timers guide
04Stay focused
Fewer controls. More learning.
Every button on screen is a decision a learner has to make. For young students — and for anyone who finds a busy screen hard to settle into — whoever’s teaching can take most of those decisions off the table.
Child Mode
Participants get a simplified toolbar — draw, erase, move, undo, redo — and just their mic and camera. Chat, Boards, and Apps stay out of the way. Hosts keep every tool, and admins can turn Child Mode on by default for new Spaces.
Child Mode guideLock the board
Lock a board, a whole Space, or individual items, so the work on screen stays on the task at hand.
Locking guidePrivate boards
Give each learner a board of their own for focused work, away from everyone else’s ink.
Private boards guideQuiet distraction alerts
Get a private alert when a participant goes idle or switches tabs, and nudge them back without calling them out in front of the group.
Distraction alerts guideA visible countdown
A timer at the top of the Space shows everyone how much time is left.
Hide your own video
Hide or resize your self-view to cut the fatigue of watching yourself for an hour.
The host’s toolbar
Every tool and panel
A participant’s toolbar, in Child Mode
Five tools, big enough to find
Hidden from participants in Child Mode
- Chat
- Boards
- Apps
The host’s toolbar has more than a dozen tools plus Chat, Boards, and Apps. In Child Mode, participants see five: draw, erase, move, undo, and redo.
05Come back to it
Class doesn’t end when the call does.
Some learners need to see it twice. Some missed a word, some missed the whole class, and some are reviewing for an exam months later. Everything that happened in the room stays where they can get back to it, at their own pace.
Boards that stay put
Every board stays in the Space — a whole semester or program in one place, for learners to revisit any time.
Recordings
Record to the cloud or to your device, and share the recording so learners can pause, rewind, and rewatch.
Recording guideTranscripts
Cloud recordings of classes taught in English come with a transcript, right beside the playback.
Recordings and transcripts guideClass summaries
An AI recap of key points and action items, emailed after each cloud-recorded class. On the Expert plan and above.
AI summaries guideRecordings that respect privacy
Leave participant video out of recordings entirely, so a class can be replayed without learners on camera.
Excluding video guide
- Boards
- Recording
- Transcript
- Summary
Learners can rewatch at their own speed and pause as often as they need — class waits for them.
Known limits
Our limits, stated plainly.
Every platform has gaps. Here are ours, who they affect, and the best workaround we know for each.
Live captions are still in development
Who it affects:People who follow speech better in text
What to do instead:Use chat during class. Cloud recordings of English-language classes include a transcript afterward.
Transcripts are English-only
Who it affects:Classes taught in other languages
What to do instead:Record the class so learners can rewatch it, and keep key points written on the board, which stays in the Space.
Keyboard shortcuts can’t be turned off or remapped
Who it affects:Speech-input users, who can trigger single-letter shortcuts by accident
What to do instead:Shortcuts don’t fire while you’re typing in a text box, sticky note, or chat.
Freehand drawing needs a pointer
Who it affects:People who can’t use a mouse, touchscreen, stylus, or writing pad
What to do instead:Typed text, sticky notes, and LaTeX equations are alternatives to handwriting on the board.
Screen reader testing has covered NVDA only
Who it affects:JAWS, VoiceOver, and TalkBack users
What to do instead:Contact support and tell us which screen reader you use.
Our conformance report doesn’t cover every feature
Who it affects:Accessibility and procurement reviewers
What to do instead:Ask us about any feature you don’t see in the report.
What’s ours, and what’s in your hands
An accessible room can still hold an inaccessible worksheet. Here’s who looks after what.
Pencil Spaces
The room
The interface, controls, video call, whiteboard tools, recordings, and transcripts. If any of these gets in a learner’s way, that’s a barrier we want reported.
Whoever’s teaching
The materials
- Upload text-based PDFs, not scans, so screen readers can read them.
- Describe images, charts, and diagrams out loud as you use them.
- Share slides and documents ahead of class for anyone who needs more time.
- Turn on cloud recording so English-language classes get a transcript.
Their makers
Third-party apps and sites
Kahoot, Quizlet, IXL, Blending Boards, Google Docs, and other tools brought into the room keep their own accessibility. Check each maker’s conformance report before you assign it.
In practice
Trusted in schools, universities, and learning programs.
“Pencil Spaces has been instrumental in our transformation—enabling us to serve more students and bring literacy to the children of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.”
Teach For America
Runs its high-dosage one-to-one tutoring program on Pencil Spaces across hundreds of schools in the United States.
Augustine Literacy Project
Volunteer tutors deliver one-to-one structured literacy lessons to students in Title I schools around Charlotte, North Carolina — online, on Pencil Spaces.
Osmond Education
Helen Osmond, the UK’s Secondary Tutor of the Year in 2024, teaches GCSE and A-level maths to underserved and neurodiverse learners on Pencil Spaces.
Also trusted by Carnegie Mellon University, New York Tech, Gaia Learning, and Tutor Doctor.
Read customer storiesBring your own method
Teachers, faculty, and training teams with materials they trust don’t have to rebuild them for the screen.
Your web tools, live in the room
Open Blending Boards, IXL, or any web-based resource in the collaborative browser. Everyone works on it together, without screen sharing.
Annotate any document
Draw, highlight, and comment on PDFs, PowerPoints, and Google Docs. Pull files straight from Google Drive or OneDrive.
1,000+ ready-made resources
A built-in library for math, the sciences, and languages, ready to drop onto a board.
Connects to your LMS and SIS
Native integrations and APIs fit Pencil Spaces into the systems your school, campus, or company already runs.
Standards and testing
Audited against WCAG 2.1 AA.
Pencil Spaces has been audited against every WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA success criterion. The results are documented in an Accessibility Conformance Report on the VPAT® template — the document schools, universities, and public agencies ask for during procurement.
It’s an assessment, not a certification: it records how each criterion rated when tested.
- Standard
- WCAG 2.1, Levels A and AA
- Report
- Accessibility Conformance Report, based on VPAT® 2.5Rev, WCAG edition
- How it was tested
- A manual audit by an accessibility professional, using only a keyboard and the NVDA screen reader, plus automated checks with axe DevTools
- Questions
- hello@pencilspaces.com
Quick answers
The questions we hear most.
Does Pencil Spaces work with screen readers?
Our audit tested the web app against WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA using the NVDA screen reader and a keyboard alone. We haven’t published results for JAWS, VoiceOver, or TalkBack.
Does Pencil Spaces have live captions?
Live captions are on the way. Today, chat gives everyone a text channel during class, and cloud recordings of English-language classes include a transcript afterward.
Can a sign language interpreter join a class?
Yes. An interpreter joins by link like any participant, with or without an account, and anyone can pin the interpreter’s video so it stays large.
Can learners take part without a mouse?
Most of the room has keyboard shortcuts — 39 are documented. Freehand drawing still needs a mouse, touchscreen, stylus, or writing pad.
Does it work on school Chromebooks and tablets?
Yes. It runs in the browser on everything from entry-level Chromebooks to laptops, phones, and tablets, with nothing to install.
Is there a VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report?
Yes. It’s based on VPAT® 2.5Rev (WCAG edition) and covers WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA. Email hello@pencilspaces.com to request it.
Who makes uploaded materials accessible?
Whoever brings them in. Pencil Spaces makes the room accessible; PDFs, slides, and third-party apps are only as accessible as their source.
How do I report a problem?
Email support@pencilspaces.com with what happened, your device and browser, and what you needed. Live support is available 24/7 by chat or email.
Our commitment
Tell us where the room falls short.
Accessibility is never finished. The people who find the gaps first are the ones in the room every day — teachers, learners, families, and the admins who support them — so when something gets in a learner’s way, we want to hear about it.
- Report a barrier
- Tell us what happened, on which device and browser, and what the learner needed.
- support@pencilspaces.com
- Learn the controls
- Step-by-step guides to keyboard shortcuts, video layouts, Child Mode, recordings, and more.
- Visit the help center
- Procurement documents
- Our Accessibility Conformance Report (VPAT®) for WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA, available on request.
- Request the report
See it with your learners.
Start free in your browser, or walk us through your program and the learners you serve.
