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We have made every effort to make our site usable and accessible for everyone.

Structural Markup

• We strive to use use semantically meaningful markup and good document structure to organize pages with hierarchies and headers. Some screen readers and other user agents can use this structural information and present the user with an overview of a web page based on the headings and sub-headings.

Visual Design

• This site uses cascading style sheets that have been validated through W3C. We comply with CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 . CSS are a great way to specify the look of a site, e.g. layout, fonts, colors, leading, margins, typefaces, and other aspects of style without compromising its structure.
• The content of each page is obtainable and functional, even if your browser or user agent does not support stylesheets.
• Font sizes are specified with relative units for easy resizing. Many low-vision users make use of devices to enlarge content displayed on their monitors. By using relative units, these users are able to change the size of the text without much difficulty.
• Pages use liquid design so they can be resized for different window sizes and screen resolutions.
• Any information conveyed through the use of color is also available without color.
• The site has been designed with a specific color scheme that will ensure the legibility of the information and not impede viewing of the site for:
  • Users who need sufficient contrast as they can not distinguish color.
  • Users who have color vision deficiencies.

Images

• All content images used in this site include alt attributes.
• Purely decorative images use null alt attributes or are are rendered via cascading style sheet background images.
• Any complex images include longdesc attributes or inline descriptions to explain the meaning of each image to non-visual readers.

Navigation

• A visible 'skip navigation' link is provided on every page for users who can see but who cannot use a mouse.
• Additional invisible skip links are also provided for screen readers users.
• Links are written to make sense out of context.
• Because research has shown that most key combinations are already in use by one device or another and any accesskey value specified is very likely to cause a conflict for some users, we have decided to not set default access keys.
• Because pop-up or spawned windows have accessibility and usability issues, (confusion, disorientation, breaking the back button etc.) none are used.
• Breadcrumb navigation is provided as a supplement to the global navigation. A breadcrumb trail tells a user "where they are" within the site.

Language

• The natural language used is English. This is specified in the markup on each web page.
• The abbreviation element is used to explain/expand abbreviations at least once (especially the first occurrence).

Forms

• All form controls are appropriately and explicitly labeled.
• We provide a phone number as an alternative form of access for our online forms.
• Form validation routines do not rely on client-side script.

Scripts

• This site works without javascript.
  • If javascript for a special effect, it is used for non-essential items.
  • If javascript is used for important items, then a non-javascript alternative is provided for those viewers who need it.

Validation and Standards Compliance

• Our site is validated to the W3C XHTML Standard.
• We make every effort to comply with:
  • Web Accessibility Standards for the University of Minnesota.
  • W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
  • Section 508 Guidelines (1194.22 Standards).
• Our site has been Cynthia 508 approved. Cynthia is a tool designed to locate and identify certain accessibility problems within web pages, so that a web developer can repair those problems. It analyzes web pages and checks for those accessibility problems that can be checked for automatically. It is a good first pass for checking your web pages for accessibility.
• We use A-Prompt (Accessibility Prompt) to improve accessibility and usability. This tool is made available through a joint collaboration between the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) at the University of Toronto and the TRACE Center at the University of Wisconsin. A-Prompt is based on the guidelines for accessibility which are created and maintained by the Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. You can configure it to check for Section 508 and/or varying levels (A-AAA) of the W3C WAI priorities.
• We do our best to abide by standards in our industry and the Web Standards Project.

Contact

• Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make this site more accessible or usable. Contact ITSS.