: Artel

/

Accessibility and the Artel Website...

Please use this list to navigate through the information on this page:

 

The information below explains the accessibility features on this website. If you are person with a disability and require information on how to find, use or adapt your computer to allow easier access to the internet, we recommend the excellent AbilityNet website.

This website has been designed to meet all the accessibility guidelines US & UK D.D.A. This website passes all automated access checks to AAA Priority 3 including The Wave, AccMonitor, WebXat (bobby)and Cynthia. Acknowledging these automated checks are often just the start of accessibility we have re-enforced these by a determination and care in visually checking and testing on a range of browsers, sized platforms, speech software and colour/ contrast testing.

 

What are the accessibility guidelines?

Priority 1 - A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.

Priority 2 - A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.

Priority 3 -A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

[From Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 WC3 ]

What is website accessibility anyway?

  • Website Accessibility means that our pages are accessible to all visitors with a disability who might use speech readers, keyboard only (no mouse), have difficulties with text, need high contrast or large text. - Try using the "tab" key on your keyboard to navigate the links on this page - it is so quick you may not use your mouse ever again!
  • Accessible websites are also multi-platform (different internet browsers) and multi-device (PC's, Apple Macs, Mobile phones) and easy to navigate and customise to your own settings.

Navigating the website.

We recommend that you view the site using Internet Explorer 6+ or FireFox 1.5+

Please use the Site Map to navigate the site without menus

We do not use Access keys (keyboard shortcuts) as user-research suggests that these may be counter-productive as shortcuts determined by a specific websites are usually a) not consistent with others and b) often override users own existing shortcuts and so hinder navigation. Instead, we recommend using keyboard tabs, predetermining your own shortcuts and using the sitemap. However, you may be interested in the following links published by Loughborough University)

Visitors using screen readers or keyboard only navigation are advised to use the "skip" options on top and navigation bars (these can also be revealed by removing the css styles) and use low graphics by using our prescripted css style or turning off the css styles (please see below).

Internet Explorer users are advised to use the browser setting to aid quick "tabbing". Select the Tools>Internet Options>Advanced tab. Under "Accessibility" ensure that "Move system caret with focus/selection changes" is selected.

Accessibility Features - Text Size

The easiest way to adjust the size of all the fonts is by by choosing:

  • view> text size> largest (Internet Explorer)
  • view > text size> increase (Mozilla Firefox)
  • view>zoom> 200% (Opera)
  • view> text zoom> 200% (Netscape)
  • view> make text bigger (Safari)
  • Preferences>WWW>Advanced Settings>Browser Display option> larger (AOL)

The pages on this website are designed to use javascript and CSS styles to control layout and colour.

If pages display as a long list of text without colour or layout it means you are using an old browser that cannot support style sheets (CSS). Please update your browser to take advantages of internet accessibility. Updating your browser is free and normally takes less than 2 minutes. Older browsers often compromise accessible content and your own computer security.

The advantage of using CSS styles is that it lets you have complete control over the lay-out as it uses special code (CSS) that can be overridden by your internet browser. This means you can control how the you would like the pages are displayed.

This website offers 3 pre-formatted styles of display which can be found at the bottom of each page:

  • Small text (default) - Standard size text with standard contrast for general use.
  • LARGE TEXT - May be useful for users that prefer larger text and higher contrast.
  • Mobile - Useful for visitors viewing on mobile devices or those using speech readers.

These operate using a simple javascript. This method also installs a "cookie" into your browser so it will "remember" your choice next time you visit our website. If your browser is set not to accept "cookies" you will have to reset your style each time your visit the website.

We recommend users with specific visual needs remove all CSS styles associated with is website rather than using . Instructions for this can be found on this page.

Accessibility Features - Contrast

A basic high contrast setting is offered at the bottom of each page using the Large Text option. This feature uses uses css style and javascript. To recreate this feature without javascript please turn of css style of use your web browser as shown below.

Turning off the css styles and choosing your own colours is also recommended for people with dyslexia who find particular combinations useful. Instructions for this can be found on this page.

If you are using Internet Explorer:

  • 1. Choose Tools>Internet Options>General tab>Colours option.
  • 2. Make sure that "Use Windows colours" is not selected
  • 3. Specify the colours you would like for both the background and the foreground. IE offers a set of basic colours will be offered to you, or you can use the "Define Custom Colours" option to specify your own choice.
  • 4. Select the Tools>Internet Options>Advanced tab.
  • 2. Under "Accessibility" select "Ignore colours specified on Web pages"

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Firefox:

  • 1. Open the Tools> Options>Content tab
  • 2. Under the Fonts & Colours section select colours
  • 3. Select you choice of colour for the text and background by clicking in the coloured boxes
  • 4. Un-tick the "allow pages to choose their own colours, instead of my selections above" box
  • 5. un-tick the "use system colours" box

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Netscape:

  • 1.Select Edit>Preferences>Appearance>'Colours
  • 2. Select a colour button to change colours of text, background, unvisited links, or visited links.
  • 3. To override the colours used by the designer of the web page, select 'Always use my colours, overriding document'. Click 'OK'.

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

Accessibility Features - Graphics

This website uses a large amount of visual content which may be too slow for mobile phone, PDA or "dial-up modem" users. Turning off graphics may also be useful for speech-readers. You can remove the majority of the graphics on this website by clicking on the "Mobile" options at the side of this page.

If the "Mobile" button does not work, your internet browser may not support javascript. If this is the case we recommend you use the browser itself to remove graphics.

If you are using Internet Explorer (IE)

  • 1. Select the Tools>Internet Options>Advanced" tab.
  • 2. Under "Accessibility" ensure that "Always expand ALT text for images" is selected.
  • 3. Scroll down to "Multimedia" and ensure that "Show pictures" is turned off.

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Firefox:

  • 1. Open Tools > Options > Content tab and
  • 2. Un-tick the "load images automatically" box s
  • 3. Refresh the page (F5) afterwards to view the changes.

If you are using Safari:

  • To load a web page with no images: From the Safari menu, choose Preferences > Appearance. Uncheck Display images when the page opens.

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Opera:

  • To remove images choose Tools>Preferences>Web pages and change the images option to No Images

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Netscape:

  • 1.Click on the security centre>tools>security centre,
  • 2. a security menu will appear in the bottom right hand corner of the browser Select the current site-rating tab
  • 3. click on the small blue arrow next to your trust settings.
  • 4. click on the advanced tab and Un-tick the box that says "allow images to be displayed"

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

 

Turning off CSS styles or using your own style sheets.

If the style sheet options included on these pages do not suit your vision needs you can turn the styles off and reset your own. This option is recommended for any user with a specific visual or manual requirements

Most mobile phone and PDA browsers can be also be set to ignore graphics. Use "options" on your browser to choose not to load graphics.

Please also feel free to use our free plain css style for your own default style. This is a medium contrast with no decorations (including no link underline) and a linear layouts. It may be useful for people with dyslexia or milder visual disabilities.

You can right click (PC) or control+click (apple) to download this css style from our website now.

If you are using Internet Explorer (IE)

  • 1. Select the Tools>Internet Options> General
  • 2. Click on the 'Accessibility'
  • 3. Select the checkbox marked 'Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages'.
  • 4. Select the checkbox marked 'Ignore font styles specified on Web pages'.
  • 4. Select the checkbox marked 'Ignore colours specified on web pages'.
  • 5. Click OK (and again if necessary).

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Safari:

Unfortunately you cannot remove a stylesheet with Safari, only replace it. Please feel free to use our free plain css style this. This plain css has a medium contrast with no decorations (including no link underline) and a linear layout. It may be useful for people with dyslexia or milder visual disabilities.

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Firefox:

  • 1. Select View>Page style, then choose "no style".

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Opera:

  • 1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Page Styles
  • 2. Deselect both checkboxes for "Document CSS" as well as both checkboxes for "My style sheet"
  • 3. Click "OK"

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

If you are using Netscape:

  • 1. Choose Edit>Preferences
  • 2. Category>Advanced
  • 3. Deselect "Enable style sheets" towards the middle of the window.
  • 4. Click "OK

You may need to refresh the page (F5) to show these changes

Accessibility Features - Technical information

The following steps have been taken to improve and promote website accessibility:

XHTML and CSS

These pages are created using XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD and pages are validated using the W3C's HTML and CSS validators.

Markup

  • Markup is written to conform to the XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD
  • Pages are validated using the W3C's HTML and CSS validators
  • The markup on this site aims to separate content from presentation as far as possible.

Design

  • A plain language approach is taken for all general content.
  • Stylesheets are used to handle layout and presentation and printing..
  • "Skip" links have been added to top, bottom and front page navigation bars to aid quick navigation for speech reader users and keyboard-only users. These can be read by speech reader automatically or can be revealed by turning off the css style.
  • Extensive browser testing has been undertaken.
  • Styles will not work older browsers. However content is displayed in the correct order, is fully legible and all page elements are visible.
  • Page elements are fully flexible.
  • All text is resizeable.
  • No device-dependent markup is used.
  • A simple and consistent approach to navigation is used.
  • All images are optimised for download.
  • All images have been assigned ALT attributes
  • Table are not used for layout.
  • The LABEL element is used to explicitly associate form inputs with their controls
  • No flickering or movement is used on pages.

This website is also coded to take off colours and styles to produce printer-friendly pages automatically when you print out this page

Accessible Adobe Acrobat for PDF documents

Some of the documents available on this site for download are formatted as Adobe Acrobat PDF documents for simple web distribution. We are aware that these have had previous accessibility problems, however many have these have now been rectified by adobe. Please follow the link below to read about how to use accessible pdf facilities.

Some helpful links.

Unfortunately, currently the majority of website guidelines are still US based and concerned with the 508 accessibility document. However the following links may be helpful in getting an overview of website accessibility issues.

  1. The legal case for accessible websites
  2. AbilityNet Website - helps disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their ICT
  3. Adobe Acrobat and accessibility: Adobe accessibility website
  4. "Disabled people favour accessible sites" - article based on the eNation report.
  5. A checklist of checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
  6. Section 508 (US) checklist
  7. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - These are the main guidelines (W3) for web accessibility:
  8. Bobby (Free accessibility checker - not to be relied on entirely)
  9. Techniques for accessible web design based on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines.
  10. Government information
  11. The design and build of an accessible website relies on careful planning, testing and maintenance.
  12. Access Guidelines and legislation
  13. Dive Into Accessibility (e-book: as pdf or html):
  14. Web accessibility advice and guidance
  15. Guidelines for accessible web design
  16. Accessibility Guidelines are harmful (Interesting article showing how some organisation are 'picking and choosing' guidelines and claiming accessibility)
  17. Blindness and low vision services (Aus)

If you have any questions about web accessibility or how accessible features have been used in this website please email our web designers at info@access-bydesign.com