Accessibility

We are committed to making the website accessible to everyone. We have put the following structure in place to make our website accessible.

We continue to seek ways to improve this site. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of this site, please contact us. Or, if for any reason you cannot access any of the material on our Website, please contact us and we will work to resolve the problem.

Contact information: Contact form on this page and phone.

Standards compliance

All Web pages validate as HTML 4.01 Strict

All pages use structured semantic markup. For instance, each page contains one Header 1 Level Tag, and any appropriate sub-level heading tags.

All paragraphs are properly coded with paragraph tags.

Navigation aids

All pages on this site include a consistent set of global main navigation links

Drop down main navigation menus use “Tab” to move from major heading to major heading, with arrow keys to access drop down submenus.

All sub-navigation menus will appear below the main navigation menu.

All pages contain the following “Landmark role” attribute:

  • Banner
  • ContentInfo
  • Main
  • Navigation
  • Search
  • Complementary

Links

Wherever possible, links are written to make sense out of context.

Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the headline of an article).

Many browsers (such as JAWS, Home Page Reader, Lynx, and Opera) can extract the list of links on a page and allow the user to browse the list, separately from the page.

If link text is duplicated; eg. “Read more” links, then “title” text is used to distinguish them.

There are no links that open new windows without warning.

All links to non-HTML files (i.e., MS Word, PDF etc.) will always open the file in a new window unless otherwise noted.

Links to external sites have the visual cue:

Images

All content images used on this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include empty ALT attributes.

Visual design

This site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for visual layout. Content is independent of CSS.

Users may disable CSS or use their own style sheets.

Where possible color brightness and illuminosity meet WCAG level 2 standards.

Current page focus is highlighted in contrasting colors.

Accessibility references

W3 accessibility guidelines 2.0, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.

W3 Accessible Techniques 2.0, which explains how to implement each guideline.

W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer’s guide to accessibility.

U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility software and services

HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.

JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited demo is available.

Lynx, a free text-only web browser.

The Web Accessibility Toolbar (WAT) has been developed to aid manual examination of web pages for a variety of aspects of accessibility. It consists of a range of functions that identify components of a web page provide access to alternate views of page content and facilitate the use of 3rd party online applications

Tips on using this site

To change the font size in Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, or Safari, use the following key equivalents:

Increase font size in Windows press Ctrl +

Increase font size in Macintosh press ⌘ +

Decrease font size in Windows press Ctrl –

Decrease font size in Macintosh press ⌘ –

Move forward from link to link Tab

Move backward from link to link Shift + tab

Move from one major navigation heading to the next Tab

Move within drop down sub-menus Up & down arrows

Go forward a page in Windows Alt + Right Arrow

Go forward a page in Macintosh ⌘ + Right Arrow

Move backward from link to link in Windows Alt + Left Arrow

Move backward from link to link in Macintosh ⌘ + Right Arrow

More Keyboard Shortcuts

Firefox

Safari

Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 8

Opera

Chrome