Teachers can add voice or video instructions to any lesson or announcement to support pre-readers and visually impaired students. Text labels, text captions, or video closed captions can be provided to reach hearing impaired students and families.


Teachers, students, and family members can leave both voice and text comments on student work. Seesaw also has translation features that expand access for teachers and families who speak different languages.  


If a note, caption, comment, announcement, or message is written in a language that is different from the language of a family's or teacher’s device, a “See Translation” option appears below the post. Tap “See Translation” and Seesaw automatically translates any text into your native language. Students do not have access to this feature.


 Translation works for notes, captions, comments, announcements, and messages. 

Available on all platforms (iOS, Android, Kindle, Web)

"See Translation" only appears if the note/caption/comment/message is written in a language that is different from the language of the viewer's device or computer. 

"See Translation" only appears for teachers and families, not students.       

Additionally, our family invite letter is now available in 10 different languages on the web through the "Invite Families" button!    


Other Accessibility Features that you can use with Seesaw:

  • Keyboard Navigation: Navigating the web version of Seesaw without a mouse is supported. Learn how to set up your computer to support keyboard navigation on Mac to use macOS keyboard shortcuts, on Chromebook, on PC. Note: Drawing in the creative canvas requires the use of a mouse, stylus, or finger, but students have many other ways to respond to lessons. Learn more. 
  • Screen Readers: Screen readers are currently supported on the web version of Seesaw. Learn more. 
  • Speech to Text or Dictation: Speech to text or dictation features are supported. Learn how to use speech to text on iOS, Android, Chrome, and Edge. 
  • Alt Text: Seesaw provides basic alt text for user-generated content (ex: “Javier’s post, in response to Writers Workshop, 2 pages”), but custom alt text can be provided in several ways. Learn more. 
  • Closed Captions: Closed captions can be uploaded to videos in multiple languages. Learn more. 
  • Voice Annotations and Instructions: Custom voice instructions and voice labels can be added to all user-generated content. Learn more. 
  • Color Contrast, Inverting Colors, and Font Size: Basic accessibility features built into the operating system or browser for adjusting color contrast, inverting colors, zoom, increasing font size are supported on the web. On iOS, text is sized for WCAG 2.1 compliance, but modifying the text size of the app user interface is not yet supported. 
  • Printing: Teachers, students, and families can print any post or assignment by tapping the [...] more options menu and selecting Print. 

Supplemental Accessibility Tools

  • Chrome Browser and Chrome OS: Turn on Live Caption to get captions for any videos or voice recordings that were recorded in English. Follow these steps. 
  • Chrome Browser: To switch Seesaw to a dark theme, follow these steps.  
  • Chrome Browser: To increase color contrast, install this Color Contrast Plugin.  
  • Chrome Browser: Translation for students can be enabled with this Translation Plugin.
  • Edge Browser: Seesaw supports the Read Aloud tool that is available in Edge. Install the latest version of Edge, then right-click on the screen, and choose "Read Aloud" to enable this functionality to read text in posts or assignments aloud. More details.


Differentiate Seesaw Activities for Diverse Learners: