Web Site Accessibility Statement
Web Standards & Accessibility?
Excerpt from Web Standards Project
(WaSP) site: (external link)
Accessibility is an important idea behind many web standards...
Not only does this mean allowing the web to be used by people with disabilities, but also allowing web pages to be understood by people using browsers other than the usual ones – including voice browsers that read web pages aloud to people with sight impairments, Braille browsers that translate text into Braille, hand-held browsers with very little monitor space, teletext displays, and other unusual output devices.
As the variety of web access methods increases, adjusting or duplicating websites to satisfy all needs will become increasingly difficult (indeed, some say it's impossible even today). Following standards is a major step towards solving this problem. Making your sites standards-compliant will help ensure not only that traditional browsers, old and new, will all be able to present sites properly, but also that they will work with unusual browsers and media.
Some consequences of ignoring standards are obvious: the most basic consequence is that you will restrict access to your site. How much business sense does it make to limit your audience to only a fraction of those who wish be a part of it? For a business site, denying access to even small portions of a target audience can make a big difference to your profit margin. For an educational site, it makes sense to allow access not only to affluent, able-bodied school-children with graphical browsers, but also to children in regions with poorly-developed infrastructure who are best served by text-only browsing, or disabled students using specialized browsers.
The same principle applies to all types of websites – while straying from the standards and taking advantage of browser-specific features may be tempting, the increased accessibility which comes from standards-compliance will lead to far greater rewards in the long run.
Web Site Developer's Statement
This page explains the steps taken to improve handicap accessibility and conform with the accessibility guidelines below.
I have designed and coded this site to comply with:
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act,
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
and
W3C WCAG 2.0 Level AAA.
I have performed automated testing and human review and believe this site to be in full compliance with the stated guidelines.
Charlottesville SEO Web Development
First Complete Test: February 12, 2008
Most Recent Partial Test: August 6, 2010
Programming and Markup
- All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict.
- All pages on this site pass automated testing for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Levels A, AA, and AAA (Triple-A) using a host of testing software including tawdis.net (external link)
- Meaningful alternative text is provided for content-rich visual elements.
- Terminology is marked up with emphasis tags, and acronym tags where appropriate, containing titled explanations.
- Scripted client-side functions provide only visual enhancements. No essential web site functions require client-side script.
- Relative font sizes enable text re-sizing in visual browsers (View menu).
- Visual layout is entirely style sheet (CSS) based. There is no presentational table-based code.
- All style sheets enable users to override site formatting with their own customized formatting.
- Effective January 2, 2010, I have eliminated the three alternate style sheets I had previously made available for text enlargements. Visitors who do not know how to resize text using the functionality available with their browsers are encouraged to visit this site for instructions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/ - All content is accessible in browsers that do not support style sheets.
- Color-coded content has alternative identification.
- The status line is not used to convey information because status line data is not accessible to all assistive technologies.
- Client side scripting is "unobtrusive JavaScript."
- Client side script functions are invoked with event handlers.
- Links are opened in the originating window.
- Form fields are labeled.
This site makes full use of structured semantic markup as follows.
- H2 tags are used for page titles.
- H3 tags are used for section headings.
- H4 tags are used for section subheadings.
Navigational Access Keys
The Home Page is accessible from each page via access key (1). We are suspending our use of access keys for each page because of the inconsistent manner they are implemented and the resulting confusion they can cause.
Contact Page Form
Form elements can be accessed by Tabbing. All form elements contain associated labels.
Additional Navigational Aids
- Skip to Navigation and Skip to Content links are provided for text only browsers
- Note: Skip to links are not visible in graphic-user-interface browsers
- All pages have rel=previous, next, and home links to aid navigation in text-only browsers.
- Repetitive navigation is coded below page content to expedite content accessibility for those using screen readers.
- Major navigation links on the Home Page contain explanatory titles.
- All other links contain inline explanatory text.
- Links are provided in content areas to provide expanded explanations.
- All pages contain links to skip over content for ready access to primary navigation.
Suggestions Welcome
Nick Stone welcomes suggestions to improve accessibility. To ensure that Nick receives your comments, please use the form provided on the Contact Page.
