Accessibility

1. This site is WCAG AAA approved, complying wih all priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This is always a judgement call; many accessibility features can be measured, but many can not; many guidelines are intentionally vague and can not be tested automatically. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance at the time of the launch of this website.
2. All pages on this site comply with the U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines. Again, a judgement call. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance.
3. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict. This is not a judgement call; a program can determine with 100% accuracy whether a page is valid XHTML.
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.

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.

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

1. This site uses cascading style sheets for visual layout.
2. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.

This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified "text size" option in visual browsers. See the text resizing instructions for the browser you use:

· Select View;
· Select Text size;
· Choose a size from the options Largest to Smallest.

· Select View;
· Select Text size;
· Choose Increase (Control +) or Decrease (Control -)

· Select View;
· Select Text zoom;
· Choose a size from the options 50% - 300% or Larger or Smaller.

· Select View;
· Select Internet options;
· Choose Fonts and change the size to Small or Large.

· Select Edit;
· Select Preferences (a new window will open);
· Select Appearance from the left hand side menu within the new window;
· Under Fonts reset the size (for example, 10, 12, 14 and so on).

· Select View;
· Select Text zoom;
· Choose a percentage size or select Larger or Smaller.

· Select View;
· Select Zoom;
· Select a size from the list.

· Select View;
· Select Make text bigger to increase the font size or Make text smaller to reduce the font size.

· Select View;
· Select Text size (two new buttons will appear next to the refresh button, a small A and a larger A);
· Select the large A to increase the font size or the small A to reduce it.

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.

1. JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
2. Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
3. Links, a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.
4. 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.