PhET Interactive Simulations

Every student deserves the full experience of scientific discovery, not a simplified version of it.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were written for a web of pages, forms, and documents. PhET simulations are not pages. They are dynamic environments designed for interactive exploration and discovery. There's no text alternative that replicates the experience of discovering Ohm's Law by building a circuit. Since 2014, our Inclusive Design Initiative has been asking a harder question: how do you make interactive discovery accessible?

We call it modal parity: the belief that a learner who is blind should be able to experience the same depth of discovery as a sighted learner. Not a simplified version. The real thing.

Over a decade of research, design, and collaboration with learners with disabilities has shaped this work. We're proud of how far it's come, and we know that we're not finished. We have legacy simulations still being upgraded, and scaling inclusive features across our full library is ongoing work.
We'll be sharing more about the specific features on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 21.
For now, we'd love for you to read our full reflection: 🔗 https://f.mtr.cool/fqsexazhhe

We're back from NSTA 2026 in Anaheim, and honestly? Our hearts are full.

Spending time with teachers at our booth: hearing your classroom stories, your questions, your wish lists, is one of our favorite things we get to do. This year did not disappoint. 🚀

A few things that made us especially happy:

✨ So many teachers were excited about our upcoming Quantum simulations. Stay tuned, because we think you're going to love them.
🧬 Membrane Transport is getting rave reviews from biology teachers who stopped by.
🛠️ PhET Studio sparked some really great conversations. It was wonderful to see teachers light up learning how it could make their lives a little easier while helping PhET keep building the sims you rely on.

We also loved connecting with partners and being part of the bigger STEM ed conversation happening in our community.

If you came by and said hello, thank you. If you didn't make it to Anaheim, we hope to see you next time! And if you want to stay up to date on everything PhET has coming, create a free PhET account to get our monthly newsletter. 💙

24 years of free simulations for classrooms. That’s not changing.

What is changing: our license is moving from CC BY to CC BY-NC. Adding two letters may look like a small change, but it helps us ensure that organizations using PhET commercially contribute to sustaining and growing the PhET library. 🚀

That support helps us keep building, improving, and maintaining PhET sims for classrooms everywhere. Every day, we hear from teachers who tell us that a PhET simulation was the moment a concept clicked for a student. That’s the work this change protects.💙 Learn more about this small change for a big mission: https://bit.ly/small-change-big-mission