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Accessibility Help Page

This website was developed in compliance with California Government Code Section 11135 that requires all electronic and information technology which is developed or purchased by the State of California Government be accessible to people with disabilities.

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. Abilities can vary from person to person, and over time, for different people with the same type of disability. People can have combinations of different disabilities, and combinations of varying levels of severity. Our goal is to make the information on this website accessible to all visitors.

If you have difficulty accessing any material on this web site, please contact the webmaster@dds.ca.gov or call (916) 654-1778.

You may also contact us in writing at:

Department of Developmental Services
Web and Database Services Section,
Attn: Webmaster
1600 9th Street, Room 220 (MS 2-7)
Sacramento, CA 95814

Difficulty Accessing Adobe PDF documents

This web site contains links to PDF documents that require the most current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. If the Adobe Acrobat Reader is not installed on your computer, you may download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader at www.adobe.com.

If you are using a screen reader, you may find it will not read some documents in PDF format. Adobe provides a web site that will convert non-accessible PDF files to a format that is useable with a screen reader. The Adobe Access site is located at access.adobe.com, and the tool can also be added to your computer as a "plug-in".

Below you will find a list of some of the technology solutions we have integrated to make our websites easy to navigate, fast-loading and accessible. To further improve the ease of use and readability of this site, such as increasing the font size, please review the section below on how to customize your browser.

Customize Your Browser to Fit Your Needs

• Change font size
• Keyboard and mouse shortcuts
• Browser add-ons
• Change CSS

Change font size

In most browsers (example: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape) you could change the font size by following the steps below:

• Open your browser
• Click View button from top menu bar
• Click  Text Size
• Select your option.

If your browser uses a different naming convention and you do not see this path, please check the Help menu on your browser. The Help menu is usually the last option on the top menu bar and it can often be accessed by pressing the keys "Alt" + "H."

In addition, newer browser versions have a magnifying tool that lets you zoom into a page and display all elements at 150 percent, 200 percent, etc. Look for the magnifying tool with a "+" character. This icon is typically located at the bottom of your browser, on the right, or at the top, below the standard menu tools, on the right. Furthermore, the keyboard shortcut to access this tool is: "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "+" to zoom in, and "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "-" to zoom out.

Shortcuts

• Keyboard shortcuts: This is a list of the most common keyboard shortcuts in Firefox, and the equivalents in Internet Explorer and Opera (from Firefox website.)
• Mouse shortcuts: This is a list of the most common mouse shortcuts in Firefox, and the equivalents in Internet Explorer and Opera. The shortcuts are for Windows, but most of the Firefox shortcuts should work in Linux too (from FireFox website.)
• Internet Explorer keyboard shortcuts

Add-ons

• Firefox accessibility extension 1.01 (browser toolbar): The Mozilla/Firefox Accessibility Extension makes it easier for people with a disability to view and navigate web content. Developers can use the toolbar to check their structural markup to make sure it matches the page content.
• List of popular Firefox add-ons
• Firefox web developer toolbar: Allows you to turn CSS on and off, disable javascript scripts and images, view source code, etc.
• Internet Explorer developer toolbar: Disable all CSS and images, resize window, etc.
• Making Internet Explorer more accessible:
  • Internet Explorer accessibility options
  • Fill in website forms and passwords automatically
  • Zoom in on a webpage
• Internet Explorer accessibility options (from Microsoft.com.) - Internet Explorer offers many accessibility options to help increase readability and to work better with assistive technology.
  

  The IE link above offers answers to some common questions about accessibility options in Internet Explorer:

  • Can I use the keyboard to surf the web?
  • Can I customize the font size, formatting, and screen colors?
  • How can I improve the way IE works with my screen reader or voice recognition software?
  • How can I improve legibility when printing webpages?

Change CSS

• Below is the step by step on how to change the style sheet file in Internet Explorer. For other browsers please check the browser's Help menu.
  • Click Tools from the top menu bar
  • Select Internet Options
  • Select the General tab (first tab)
  • Click on Accessibility button (bottom section, Appearance)
  • Click on checkboxes to ignore all colors and font styles and sizes and/or
  • Click on checkbox: "Format documents using my style sheet"
  • Browse to your personal style sheet and
  • Click OK