It is the goal of the Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Council to strive for the highest level of accessibility possibility for its Web site. The initial development of the site was based on the Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines: link to guidelines (http://www.w3.org/WAI/). We continue to maintain this high level of accessibility on the parac.org site.
As the Web site developer, MasseyNet.com, Inc., feels strongly that Web browser standards should be the base level for accessibility. All pages that have been posted to the parac.org site prior to January 2004 validate as HTML 4.1 markup, and all pages posted since January 2004 validate to xHTML 1.0 markup and have been validated at Priority 1 using the World Wide Initiative validator at: (http://validator.w3.org).
Since the initial build of this Web site, the United States government has developed Section 508 guidelines for accessibility. The following are the Section 508 guidelines as they relate to Web sites and our compliance statement for each requirement. You will find additional comments at the end of this statement.
(a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
Non-text elements are not used on the parac.org site. Additionally, many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the link destination.
(b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
Multimedia presentation is not used on the parac.org site.
(c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
All pages on the parac.org Web site have been designed with color for the use of visual users and image recognition. All pages have been tested for sight deficient users so that no information is conveyed strictly through the use of color.
(d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
All pages on the parac.org Web site have been built using an associated style sheet. These pages have also been tested without the associated style sheet and are organized and display in the same manner with and without style.
(e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.
No server-side or other image map is used on the parac.org Web site.
(f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
See (e) above.
(g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
We are no longer using tables, except for the display of tabular data, on any pages developed since 2003 on the parac.org Web site. For users of screen readers and speech browsers, we associate headers with their respective rows and columns to aid legibility and accessibility.
(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.
There are no tabular data tables used on the parac.org site that contain two or more logical levels.
(i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.
Frame markup is not used on the parac.org site.
(j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
No pages have been designed to cause screen flicker on the parac.org site.
(k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.
All pages on the parac.org site are accessible and do not require any equivalent text-only pages to be accessible.
(l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.
No scripting is used to display content on the parac.org site.
(m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).
Each page on the parac.org Web site which requires another application to be viewed includes a link to the §1194.21(a) through (l) compliant software.
(n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
The online electric form on the parac.org site includes the elements and functionality required for accessibility, including the tabindex attribute.
(o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
Jump links have been positioned at the top of the page so that visitors can quickly navigate to the main content of the page. This feature is especially useful to the screen magnifier or speech browser user, or those who are viewing from a small screen resolution.
(p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
There are no timed responses required of a user on the parac.org site.
Link text is never duplicated; two links with the same link text always point to the same address. All links can be followed in any browser, even if scripting is turned off. Also, there are no links that open new windows without warning.
Page titles appear in the top bar of the browser. All pages on the parac.org site include the site name and a description of the content on the page.
As an additional aid to navigation of the parac.org site, a link to "search the site" is included on all pages.
Our pages use structured headers to aid legibility and accessibility. The first header on the page is the main content header followed by any appropriate sub-headers.
The jump links at the top of the page provides fast and easy access to the main content areas of every page.
This site and all its archives use cascading style sheets for visual layout.
This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified "text size" option in visual browsers allowing the visitor to the parac.org site to change the font size on all pages to suit the user's preference.
If the visitor's browser or browsing device does not support style sheets, the content of each page is still logically ordered, readable and fully functional.
The user friendly "liquid" page layout ensures that the pages will stretch to fill the space available to them, meaning that no matter what your browser window size or screen resolution, the site adapts itself to the space available which also creates an ease of use for people who use a screen magnifier.
Prepared by:
Nancy Massey
MasseyNet.com, Inc.
Web site accessibility specialists
www.masseynet.com
Dated: February 25, 2009