Accessibility Statement

One of the guiding philosophies in our work is that information should be accessible to everyone. That is why this web site was created with the needs of many people in mind. People with disabilities (such as difficulty using a computer mouse or reduced vision) as well as those with technological impairments (like a slow Internet connection), will greatly benefit by the steps taken to ensure the accessibility of this web site.

Images

All images include an alt attribute which provides alternative text that describes the image for visitors who can not see it. Users who are using text-only browsers, blind visitors using screen readers, and visitors with slow Internet connections who have turned off image loading can all still clearly understand the purpose of the images by the alt texts.

Complex images that require one include a longdesc attribute which conveys the meaning and purpose of the image in the content if this has not already been provided by the text itself.

Access Keys

Most browser software supports jumping to and following specific links on a page by hitting special keys defined in the web site. This helps people with physical impairments navigate without using the mouse. If you're visiting with a laptop, these shortcut keys can also be extremely helpful if you dislike trackpads.

On Windows computers, you can press alt plus an access key to focus on that link, and then press enter or return to follow it. On a Macintosh computer, press control plus an access key to follow that link.

All pages on this site define the following access keys:

  • Access key 1 - Home Page
  • Access key 2 - About Us
  • Access key 3 - Services
  • Access key 5 - Portfolio
  • Access key 7 - News & Weblog
  • Access key 9 - Contact Us
  • Access key 0 - Accessibility Statement (this page)

Standards Compliance

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 or not. For example, check this page for XHTML validity.

Additionally, all style sheets used on this site validate as CSS level 3. Like the markup, this validation can be determined with total accuracy by a program. For instance, check this page for CSS validity.

Semantic Markup

All section headers are enclosed in h2 tags, and all subheaders are enclosed in h3 tags. Further subheaders are enclosed in h4 through to h6 tags.

This enables users browsing with screen readers to have instant access to a page overiew or an individual page section. Using the JAWS screen reader, typing insert + F6 will read all the headers on the page, while typing ctrl + insert + enter will navigate through the page by skipping to the next header. Additionally, typing alt + insert + 3 begins reading the next section within the current page.

Using the Opera web browser, one can type s to skip to the next header or w to skip to the previous one.

Finally, lists that appear throughout this site are marked up as such. This displays an asterisk (*) as a visual cue in the text-only Links and Lynx browsers.

Visual Design

This site uses CSS for visual layout and design. Visually-impaired visitors to this site who are using assitive technologies like screen readers can still understand the content of every page easily.

Relative Font Sizes

The design of this site uses relative font sizes so that users may adjust the size of the text to their liking using the "text-size" option available in most browser software. This is critical for enabling some visitors to easily read the content of web pages by allowing them to increase or decrease the size of the text to their comfortable level.

Hypertext Links and Copy

Links on this site have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the link text already fully describes the target. In visual browsers, this text is rendered in a tooltip. Screen readers read this text aloud. Links, with their titles, are written to make sense even out of the context in which they appear in the copy to help facilitate scanning.

Identified Human Language

Each page on this site identifies the human language being used. Subsections of this site using other languages specify the language in that content block as well. This helps screen readers correctly pronounce the words on the page, and it helps search engines better index and search the content.