This website has been designed to be inclusive and to provide access to the widest range of users regardless of technological or physical disability. Several measures, as described below, have been implemented to ensure a high level of accessibility.
Navigation
The horizontal top menu provides single click access to each major subsection of the site. Once in a subsection, the left hand menu provides access to all lower level pages in that section. Both top and side menus can traversed using the tab key only. Menu links are selected using the enter key.
Links
The currently active link is highlighted in yellow to ensure the the pointing device's current focus is obvious.
Accessibility bar
The accessibility bar is located at the top of every page. This provides easily navigable links to:
- Jump to navigation – Select link to jump to the top menu
- Jump to content – Select link to jump to the start of the page’s primary content
- Accessibility – Select link to access this page
Increase/Decrease font size – Click on the icon to increase font size, click again to reset font size to the site default. Link can be accessed via tab key.
Fixed/Fluid page width – Click on icon to switch between a fixed and fluid page width. Link can be accessed via tab key.
Toggle high contrast view – Click on icon to toggle between default and high contrast views. Link can be accessed via tab key
Contrast
A high contrast view of the site is provided and is easily accessed via the Accessibility bar at the top of the page.
Font size
All screen fonts in use on the site may be increased (or reduced) in size using your browser’s zoom facility. Alternatively, the text size icon in the Accessibility bar can be selected to increase the default font size by abroximately 80%.
Access keys
To reduce the possibility of overriding keyboard shortcuts for screen readers, only two access keys have been implemented:
- Alt + c - jump to content
- Alt + n - jump to navigation
Tab indexing
Tab indexing is designed to make tabbing through the site easier and also to enable keyboard only access to the site. The tab order of information within the majority of pages in this site is:
- Links in Accessibility bar
- Search
- Chord9 logo (click for home)
- Top navigation bar
- Central content
- Left hand menu
- Features in right hand column if present
- Links in footer bar
W3C Compliance
The site has been designed to comply with the guidelines issued by W3C/WAI. All pages meet priority 2 (AA) guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and wherever possible priority 3(AAA).