Accessibility Statement

We are committed to ensuring that our website is accessible to everyone. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of this site, please use our contact form, as we are continually striving to improve the experience for all of our visitors.

Standards compliance

  1. All pages on this site follow U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines.
  2. All pages on this site follow priorities 1 & 2 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
  3. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict, or HTML 4.01 Strict.
  4. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H2 tags are used for main titles, H3 tags for subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+3. Opera users can skip sections by using "S" and "W" to cycle forwards and backwards respectively through headings.

Structural Markup

Web pages on Adrienne Boswell include 4 different areas:

  1. A page header that includes the page title
  2. A top bar that includes the main navigation,
  3. A main content area,
  4. A footer that includes links to other areas, such as this document.

When CSS (Cascading Styles Sheet) are not applied to a document (or when using a screen reader), the 4 areas are read in the above order.

Access Keys

This site does not use the accesskey attribute. Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.

Unfortunately, access keys often clash with keys set aside for use with other UAs (i.e. assistive technology). For this reason, we have decided to not include the attribute in our markup.

Images

  1. Unless they are purely decorative items, all images used on this web site have suitable alt attributes.
  2. Content should be usable/accessible with images "off" (disabled).

Links

  1. Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
  2. Links are written to make sense out of context.
  3. The first link in every document is a "SkipNav"; it is to skip directly to what is considered the main section of the page (the content). We have implemented this feature in a way that it allows Internet Explorer users to tab through (past that target link).

Forms

  1. All form controls are appropriately and explicitly labeled.
  2. We provide an email address as an alternative form of access for our online forms.
  3. Form validation routine does not rely on client-side script.

Scripts

  1. We are using non obtrusive client-side scripts.
  2. Content of this web site is usable without JavaScript support.

External Sites

Unless otherwise noted, links to external sites open in the same window.

  1. In visual browsers, unless Javascript is disabled, a small icon (External Link Image) appears next to links to some external resources, the title attribute of these links says "(opens in new window)". This is provided because the external site(s) in question uses scripting or markup which breaks the back button or makes it difficult to return to this site.
  2. Browsers with Popup Blockers should be able to access these external documents.

Visual design

  1. This site uses cascading style sheets for visual layout.
  2. This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified text size option in visual browsers.
  3. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.
  4. Any information conveyed through the use of color is also available without color (i.e. text based).

How to modify this site to fit your needs

These links explain the many ways you can make the web more accessible to you.

Accessibility references

  1. W3 accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.
  2. W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline.
  3. W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility.
  4. U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility software

  1. JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
  2. Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
  3. Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
  4. Links, a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.
  5. Opera, a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.

Accessibility services

  1. HiSoftware® Cynthia Says™, a free service to analyze web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.
  2. HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
  3. Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer, a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
  4. Lynx Viewer, a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.

Related resources

  1. WebAIM, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.
  2. Designing More Usable Web Sites, a large list of additional resources.