This page exists to explain some of the ways in which this site has been designed to be accessible to all. It is largely based on Dive Into Accessibility.

All pages on this site bearing the WAI logo have been designed to be accessible to all. The remaining pages, which largely come from older editions of the magazine, will be optimised as time permits. It should be assumed that this statement does not apply to those pages.

Access keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT and an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control and an access key.

All pages on this site define (or will shortly define) the following access keys:

• Access key 1 - Home page
• Access key 2 - Skip to page content
• Access key 4 - Search
• Access key 9 - Feedback
• Access key 0 - Accessibility statement

Standards compliance

1. All pages on this site, bearing the WAI logo, are WCAG A approved, complying with all priority 1 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This is a matter of judgement; many guidelines are intentionally vague and can not be tested automatically. I aim to review all the guidelines for priorities 2 and 3 and achieve compliance with those.
2. I aim to achieve Section 508 approval for all pages on this site, complying with all of the U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines.
3. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. This is not a matter of judgement: a program can determine with 100% accuracy whether a page is valid XHTML. For example, you can check each page by following the link (which displays as a button) at the end.
4. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles and so on. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+2.

Navigation aids

1. The site is searchable via Google (access key 4).
2. All links on this site will, by default, open within the same browser window.

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 (such as the headline of an article).
2. Links are written to make sense out of context.

Images

1. All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.
2. Complex images will eventually include LONGDESC attributes or inline descriptions to explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers.

Visual design

1. This site uses cascading style sheets throughout 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.

Accessibility references

1. W3 accessibility guidelines, which explain the reasons behind each guideline.
2. W3 accessibility techniques, which explain 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. Bobby, 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.