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Accessibility / Full accessibility statement

Full accessibility statement

Our vision

The Micro:bit Educational Foundation is committed to supporting all children to create their best digital future. We strive to make our website and digital resources accessible to the widest possible audience.

  • As a teacher or student, you should be able to navigate most of our digital products and services (including microbit.org, our code editors, and our technical support) using alternative access methods, such as using a screen reader, speech recognition software, or only a keyboard.
  • We acknowledge there is always more work to be done. We are actively reviewing our digital products to identify and remove any barriers. For more details see our accessibility roadmap on this page.
  • We are actively working with end users to identify and promote best practices in the classroom involving students with varied access needs, including best practices to broaden access to our physical micro:bit device.
  • We welcome feedback and requests relating to accessibility, and love to hear case studies of how you have adapted the micro:bit lessons, or have built assistive technology with the micro:bit. See the contact us section of this page for details.

Scope of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement provides information and guidance relating to the accessibility of our products and services including microbit.org, our code editors, and our technical support.

Product accessibility statements

You can find detailed accessibility guidance for each of our products in the following statements:

Guidance for specific access needs

If you are working with a particular product, or have students with particular access needs, you may find further information in our accessibility-focused guides.

We've also developed practical guides for teachers supporting students with specific access needs:

This accessibility statement was last reviewed on 13 July 2026 and will be reviewed at least annually.

How to get the best from this website

The site has been designed to enable you to:

  • Change colours, contrast, and fonts
  • Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Navigate the website using the keyboard only, with predictable tab order and visual indicator of focus
  • Navigate using speech recognition software
  • Navigate using a screen reader. Our website is designed to be fully accessible; any limitations in our more advanced web applications are documented in the relevant product statements.
  • Listen to content on our web pages using your device’s inbuilt text to speech or browser plugins like Google Chrome Selection Reader
  • Customise the visual appearance of the website using browser colour schemes or plugins to change the colour

For information on how to customise your experience of the website, we recommend visiting My Computer, My Way.

Web standards

We strive to meet and exceed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version (WCAG) 2.1 AA, including testing our websites and apps using only keyboard access, and using a screen reader (typically NVDA). We detail any deviation from WCAG guidelines in the specific guides.

Accessibility issues

Third party integrations

Some parts of our web presence are provided via third party integrations, which we have limited control over.

Support site

We use Freshdesk for our support site and ticketing system. We are aware of some barriers in using the Freshdesk site and ticketing system. See our support site accessibility statement for more details.

If you are unable to access the support site, you can always contact us by email with your support request.

Professional development courses

Our professional development courses are hosted by Thinkific.

As of September 2025, we have not audited the accessibility of these courses or the content.

Legacy resources

Some legacy resources may not meet our current accessibility goals. This includes:

Mobile apps

Our mobile apps allow you to connect to a micro:bit via Bluetooth to transfer programs and retrieve data on a mobile device. In most cases the apps can be avoided - on desktop or laptop computers, and on Android devices via USB, a browser-based workflow is available and offers better accessibility. The only scenario where an app is strictly required is when using an Apple device (iPhone or iPad) to send programs to or download data from the micro:bit.

We are aware that our mobile apps are less accessible than our web-based tools. Known issues are documented in our iOS app accessibility statement and Android app accessibility statement, and we are making targeted improvements. If you encounter accessibility barriers, the browser-based alternative is usually the better option.

Branding colours

We have recently updated our branding colours to adjust the green and blue digital colours to those that meet WCAG contrast requirements at the font sizes we use them at. However, some use of previous green and blue text on a white/off-white background, or white/off-white text on a blue or green background does remain that does not always meet WCAG contrast requirements. We have tested against APCA perceptual contrast tools and believe that these are usually perceptually acceptable at the sizes we use them at. We plan to update our use of green and blue over time to use the new colours and so meet WCAG contrast requirements.

How we test for accessibility

We use a mixture of manual and semi-automated testing, including:

  • Automated testing using the following tools
  • Running quick manual tests, including:
    • Using the HeadingsMap plugin to review page structure
    • Changing browser zoom, and changing font size using A+ Font size changer plugin
    • Scaling to 320x256 CSS pixels in Chrome Dev Tools
    • Navigating the whole page with keyboard only access to check logical ordering and visual focus
  • Manual testing with the NVDA screen reader on Windows to test key user workflows
  • Where appropriate, for complex web apps, we have conducted user testing with blind individuals

We are updating our internal design processes to ensure we design with accessibility in mind from the outset:

  1. When designing new areas of the website or web apps, we do a high level accessibility review at the prototype stage to highlight any design considerations before implementation.
  2. After initial design and before public release we do some follow-up testing, including using a screen reader and various manual tests.
  3. For complex apps, we often carry out user testing with assistive technology users. Recent examples include the micro:bit Python Editor (2023, screen readers, eye control, pointing devices), MakeCode keyboard access (2025), and MakeCode screen reader support (2026).

If you are using micro:bits with a student group who you think would benefit from improvements and support from the Micro:bit Foundation, contact us for feedback and to potentially be involved in user testing projects.

Accessibility roadmap

We acknowledge there is always more work to be done. We are committed to actively improving the accessibility of our products. As well as continuous reviews of new digital content, we are carrying out the following activities to improve the accessibility of all our products.

Recent work

  • Launched keyboard accessibility in MakeCode (2025)
  • Published accessibility statements covering all major products (2025-2026)
  • Launched screen reader support in MakeCode (2026)
  • Review of support site (2026)

Currently working on

  • Publishing Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) for our products
  • Developing and updating tools/products with accessibility in mind, reviewing accessibility of these as they launch

Contact us

We are always happy to receive feedback from our users, both good and bad. Please contact us directly at accessibility@microbit.org or via our support site.

In particular, please contact us if you

  • Require any of our materials in an alternate format
  • Have any feedback on the accessibility of our sites, materials or the micro:bit itself
  • Are working with a student with a disability and would like to discuss possible adaptations
  • Would like to share feedback or a case study of how you have adapted the micro:bit lessons, or have built assistive technology with the micro:bit.