News

Access Keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.

All pages on this site define the following access keys:

* Access key 1 - Home page
* Access key 8 - Site Map
* Access key 9 - Feedback / Contact Us
* Access key 0 - Accessibility statement

Aims

help4IT aims to provide a rich and meaningful web site that is accessible to all. Much of our work (both web-based and in the real world) involves multimedia, forms, and visual representations of information and we pay particular attention to making sure that such work is accessible.

We will monitor our work and others to ensure that we are always achieving and setting best practice.

We will conduct feedback reviews with users to ensure that diverse needs are being met.

We believe that an accessible site does not mean a boring site, nor does it mean dumbing down to the lowest common denominator. We deal with complex and challenging issues and strive to do so intelligently, in ways that are satisfyingly accessible.

Standards Compliance

We aim to make all pages on this site Bobby approved, complying with all the Bobby guidelines. This is is always a matter of judgment; many accessibility features can be measured, but many can not. We have reviewed all the guidelines and will strive to comply.

We aim to make all pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. This is not a matter of judgment; a program can determine with 100% accuracy whether a page is valid HTML.

Links

Most links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.

Links are written to make sense out of context.

Images

All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.

Visual design

This site uses cascading style sheets for visual layout.

This site allows user-specified "text size" option in visual browsers. In Netscape, select View > Text Zoom. In Internet Explorer, select View > Text Size and adjust the settings to your preferred size.

If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.

Accessibility references

W3 accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline.
W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility.

Accessibility software

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

Related resources

WebAIM, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.
Designing More Usable Web Sites, a large list of additional resources.
Dive Into Accessibility - Mark Pilgrim's "30 days to a more accessible web site" pages where much of this information was borrowed, copied or made use of.
The Disability Rights Commission have produced a useful report following an investigation into the current state of website accessibility in the UK