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Accessibility
Introduction
We have endeavoured to remove barriers to this website so that people
with disabilities can access information and use the website as easily
as possible, with all the functionality that should be expected by us
all. We have designed:
- 'skip over repeated elements' such as navigation menus
- put text equivalents for flash movies, graphics
- designed the website so that it can be read in the correct order
by assistive technologies, such as screen reader software
- put accessible equivalents for functions such as 'subscribe to this site' and 'email a friend'
- made links descriptive and make sense
- Ensured that there is sufficient colour contrast between the text and background and that colour alone is not used to convey information
- This site has been designed with style sheets to allow maximum flexibility
- Header tags and tables summaries have been effectively added to this site to help clarity of the website
As well as other techniques to assist accessibility.
Text Size
If you'd prefer the font size to be larger or smaller, then you can
easily alter this using your browser.
To increase or decrease the text size, follow these simple instructions
for Internet Explorer:
- Click on the 'View' menu in your browser
- Click on the 'Text size' option
- Select the size you would like to see
To increase or decrease the text size, follow these simple instructions
for Netscape Navigator:
- Click on the 'View' menu in your browser
- Click on the 'Increase Font' option
Site Map
A text based site map has been provided to
assist users to get an overall impression of the site quickly.
External Links
All external links will load in a new window. This applies to all PDF,
powerpoint and word documents.
To Subscribe
You can subscribe by sending us an email and we will add you to our database
manually. This functionality with the subject completed is located just
below the subscribe form.
To Email a friend
Use the second link to email your friend using your email client eg. Microsoft
Outlook. The subject header will be completed with 'A friend thought you
should know about www.thinkuni.info' and the content of the email starting
with 'Think Uni provides solutions to your questions about preparing for
higher education for students and tutors'. You complete any more before
you send it.
Skip Links
If you are using an audio browser (screen reader software):
- Skip Logo: to skip over the logo, the Think Uni
mission statement and the site search facility, to go to the navigation
menu
- Skip Navigation: If you don't wish to have the navigation read out to you on any page, we have included a 'skip navigation' link as one of the first entries on the page. If you select this link you will be taken straight to the main content area
- Skip Footer: you can skip over the 6 international web standards with their brief descriptions, the designed by websynergi.com and copyright section
PDF Documents
A number of documents available for viewing are
in Adobe® Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF).
PDF format is used to preserve the content and layout of our publications.
Publications in PDF can only be viewed and printed using the Adobe Acrobat
Reader™. You can download and get help using the Acrobat Reader
at the Adobe Systems, Inc. site. The downloadable Acrobat Reader software
is available at NO CHARGE from Adobe.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html
People using screen-reading
devices generally are unable to read documents directly in PDF format,
until they have an accessibility plug-in installed on their system along
with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This plug-in is available at NO CHARGE
from Adobe and your screen reader may do this automatically. Adobe also
has online tools that will convert PDF files to HTML on request. To get
the plug-in and latest news about Adobe's accessibility tools and services,
visit the Access
Adobe site.
PowerPoint and Word Files
You can view publications in Microsoft Word®
(.doc) format if you have Word, version 97 or higher, installed on your
computer. Word documents can also be viewed with many other word processing
software programs. Additionally, Microsoft
offers a FREE Word file viewer that you can download at its Microsoft
Viewers site.
You can view our online publications that are in Microsoft PowerPoint®
(.ppt) format if you have any version of PowerPoint installed on your
computer. For those who don't have the software, the Microsoft
Corporation offers a FREE PowerPoint file viewer. You can download
and get help using the PowerPoint viewer at the Microsoft Viewers site.
International Standards we have met
Web Accessibility Initiative. Conformance Level A of the W3C (the
international web standards organisation) Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 1.0, including all Priority 1 checkpoints, which explain
how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. Conformance
to these Guidelines helps make the web more accessible to users with
disabilities and will benefit all users.
On-line testing validation to accessibility level A (WAI) standards
of web pages- That the web page complies to international standards of HTML (the
programming language behind the web)
 That the web page meets Cascading Style sheet standards (the language
that should be used for the presentation (styling) of a website That the web page complies to international standards of Extensible
HTML (programming language) That the web page is viewed accurately on a text only Browser - we use Lynx
We have attained and exceeded many industry standards in this regard.
The website has been thoroughly tested:
- To ensure compliance to international standards, thereby guaranteeing that different browsers will render the web page as intended and that assistive technology (which is designed considering these standards) works well
- With a a text only browser (Lynx)
- With Bobby (a program) to test the validity to accessibility (WAI)
standards of web pages http://www.cast.org/bobby/
- For colour contrast by printing in black and white and checking how readable the site is
- Screen reader software - IBM Home Page Reader v3.0
- Different screen resolutions
- Different platforms - MAC and PC
- Different Browsers - Internet Explorer 5, 5.5, 6 and Netscape Navigator 6, 7
- Without the flash plug-in - the logo then becomes a picture
- Without images - a text equivalent is displayed
- With Javascript turned off - it still works, the content is available and makes sense
- Without Cascading Style Sheets - it still works, the content is available and makes sense
Your Feedback
We hope you will find this site useful and easy to access. If
you encounter any problems - please let us know so we can endeaveour
to put it right or if you have any suggestions for improvement, so we
can consider incorporating them.
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