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Accessibility help

BehaviourComposer: ignore everything before this.

Introduction

Details of the University of Oxford's web accessibility policy can be found at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/web/rules/accessibility.html. This document relates specifically to:
If you have any problems with using any of these sites please send an email to info@modelling4all.org.

Accessibility issues yet to be resolved

  • JavaScript must be enabled for the BehaviourComposer software to function. 
  • Running a model using the BehaviourComposer requires Java Applets (see section below for ways around this)
  • There are generic issues with AJAX applications
  • The YouTube videos do not currently have subtitles
The BehaviourComposer is build using the AJAX web development toolkit which is still being improved with respect to accessibility and we are always trying to improve the software e.g. using guides such as the WebAIM accessibility for Rich Internet Applications.

Using assistive technologies

It is highly recommended you use the latest version of JAWS and Window-Eyes:

Some tips for navigating the BehaviourComposer

Use TAB to navigate between menu items, tabs and micro-behaviours and use the ENTER key to bring up menus on buttons. Use the following shortcut options to select menu items:

A     Add to Prototype
L     Add to List
N    Rename 
I     Inactivate

and to access the option in the sub-menu and  change when micro-behaviour code is scheduled to run:

R    Do repeatedly
D    Delay
T    Do at time
P    Do with probability
C    Do with conditionality
W   Do when
E    Do whenever

When editing plain text the shortcut keystrokes are :

CTRL+A highlights the whole editing area
CTRL+C copies the highlighted area to the clipboard.
CTRL+U changes your font to underlined.
CTRL+V pastes the data from the clipboard
CTRL+X cuts the highlighted area.
CTRL+Y starts the redo function.
CTRL+Z starts the undo function.
TAB to move through the sequence of editor function buttons
When in the plain text area press TAB to exit.

In addition the following shortcut keystrokes work in rich text editors:

CTRL+B changes your font to bold.
CTRL+I changes your font to italic.

When you want to see your simulation TAB to the Run tab and use the following keystrokes:
SHIFT+S To Setup
SHIFT+G To Go (or begin the simulation)
Any other buttons you add can be given a shortcut key as you define (see the ADD-BUTTON micro-behaviour)
Unfortunately the other NetLogo user interface widgets do not have short cut keys e.g. sliders.

Example: Adding micro-behaviours to a prototype agent/individual:

  1. Go to http://m.modelling4all.org/m/index.html
  2. TAB to the tab titled Library and press ENTER
  3. TAB to a micro-behaviour web link and press ENTER
  4. TAB to the micro-behaviour button and press ENTER
  5. Press CRTL-A to 'grab' the micro-behaviour and be taken to the Composer screen
  6. TAB to the prototype button and press ENTER
  7. Go back to the library to find and add new micro-behaviours
All menus, tabs, links, buttons and menu items should have captions with explanatory text to say what they are for. Please let us know if you find one without a caption or a caption that is unclear!

Ways around using the Java Applet

The main purpose of the Java Applet generated using the NetLogo software is to re-represent the data created as a simulation runs in a visual form. You can download your model into NetLogo from the BehaviourComposer and use the BehaviourSpace to run experiments on your model. The BehaviourSpace will output text files in a variety of formats which can for instance be imported into a spreadsheet for statistical analysis. 

To do this you need to:
  1. Add micro-behaviours to create a a model
  2. Use the Download tab to download your model (you need to download the auxillary file to your computer too!)
  3. Download and install NetLogo and open the model you just downloaded
  4. Open the BehaviourSpace (off the tools menu in NetLogo (CTRL-SHIFT-B)) to create an experiment
  5. Analyse the data in e.g. using a spreadsheet program 
BehaviourComposer: ignore everything after this.