Accessibility
Features & Information

Keyboard Navigation - Access Keys

To make our website easier to navigate, keyboard shortcuts known as “access keys” have been created. All pages use the following access keys:

  • 1 - Home page
  • 2 - Skip to content
  • 3 - Skip to side navigation
  • 4 - Search
  • 5 - Site Map
  • 9 - Email Us / Feedback
  • 0 - Accessibility features

Browsers handle access keys in slightly different ways:

  • Internet Explorer 4/Win: Press ALT plus the access key
  • Internet Explorer 5+/Win: Press ALT plus the access key, then press ENTER to activate or follow the link
  • Internet Explorer 4.5/Mac: does not support access keys
  • Internet Explorer 5+/Mac: Press CONTROL plus the access key
  • Netscape versions prior to 6: do not support access keys
  • Netscape 6+/Win: Press ALT plus the access key
  • Netscape 6+/Mac: Press CONTROL plus the access key
  • Mozilla (including Firefox)/Win: Press ALT plus the access key
  • Mozilla (including Firefox)/Mac: Press CONTROL plus the access key
  • Opera (PC & Mac): Press and release SHIFT + ESC, then press an access key (in this case, you do not need to press ALT or CONTROL along with the access key)
  • Mozilla based browsers (Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape 7+, Camino) occasionally refuse to respond to an access key. Press the access key a second time and it should work correctly.

These and other browsers may occasionally prevent certain access key combinations from working because of default shortcut keys. Additionally, accessibility software may override certain access key combinations.

Printing Pages

When you print a page from our site, the page is formatted to print neatly on your printer:

  • All page contents should fit on 8.5 x 11 paper, with all contents contained within comfortable page margins
  • Text is printed at approximately 11 point size for easy reading
  • Top and side navigation menus are not printed
  • Background graphics and non-essential page elements are not printed
  • Images and graphics relevent to the page topic are printed
  • Headings, graphics and photos will print in color on a color printer
  • Hyperlinks within page text will print underlined (and in color on a color printer). In most newer browsers the link will be followed by parenthasis containing the actual link destination.

    For example: the link SCVRD Home Page will print as:

    SCVRD Home Page (http://www.scvrd.net)

    Please note that this feature does not work on all browsers.

Standards Compliance

Resizing Text

This site is designed so that you can use your browser’s normal method of resizing text to change the displayed size of all text.

In your browser click the View menu, choose Text Size or Text Zoom, and then choose Increase, Decrease or Normal (the default size), or choose Largest, Larger, Medium (the default), Smaller or Smallest. Most browsers work similarly.

Java and JavaScript

A small amount of JavaScript is used on this website to enhance the visual design and increase accessibility. However, if you have JavaScript turned off in your browser, you will still be able to use this site to its fullest.

Be aware that JavaScript and Java are not the same thing. Java is a stand-alone programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. JavaScript, developed by Netscape Corporation, is a not a stand alone programming language; in order for JavaScript to work it must be part of a web page displayed in a browser that understands how to interpret JavaScript.

Flash

A small amount of Flash animation is used on this site. If you don't have the Flash player installed on your computer—or if you have disabled Flash—you will still be able to use this site to its fullest. Some Flash elements are purely decorative and no alternative content is provided, while in other cases complete alternative content is available and will display in place of the Flash content.

Navigation Aids

  • All pages include skip navigation links that all jumping to the sidebar navigation area or to the main content area of the page.
  • All pages include a search box and links to “What's New”
  • All pages include the same navigation tabs; each tab groups information by content or who it will benefit.
  • Each tab contains a side bar with groups of links to pages with more detailed information for that area.
  • You can always return to the home page by clicking the header, pressing the appropriate access key, or clicking the “Home” tab.
  • Ceratin pages can be displayed by using access keys.
  • Pages are designed to display in a logical order if your browser is not capable of utilizing style sheets. Elements display in the following order: Header, main (tabbed) naigation, content, sidebar navigation, footer.

Links

  • Links may have TITLE attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the link target (such as the headline of an article).
  • Links are written to make sense out of context.
  • Links to offsite content are so indicated in their TITLE text and are either preceeded or followed by this graphic: Graphic used throughout our site to indicate offsite links.

Images

  • All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.

Graphic Design

  • This site uses cascading style sheets for content layout.
  • This site uses relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified “text size” option in visual browsers. See Resizing Text for more information.
  • If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets, the full content of each page is still readable and accessible. See page order under Navigation Aids for more information.

Accessibility References

Accessibility Software

  • JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
  • IBM Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
  • Window-Eyes, a screen reader for Windows.
  • VoiceOver, a screen reader built into Macintosh OS X v10.4 (Tiger).
  • Emacspeak (freeware for Linux)
  • Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays. Versions for Unix, VMS, Windows 95/98/NT (not 3.1 or 3.11), DOS (386 or higher) and OS/2 EMX. Macintosh versions in beta test.
  • Links, a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth. Versions for Unix, OS/2, BeOS, Macintosh OSX. Window version in beta test.
  • Opera, a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, and image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.
  • Firefox, a visual browser with accessiblity features. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems. Several extensions (such as Link Toolbar, iCITA Accessibility Extension and Text Zoom) which enhance accessibility are available for Firefox.

Accessibility Services

  • Watchfire WebXACT, a free service to analyze web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.
  • HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
  • WAVE, a free service for analyzing and checking that web pages conform to standards and accessibility guidlines.
  • Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer, a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
  • Lynx Viewer, a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.

Related Resources

Accessibility Books