Accessibility and Access Keys
To assist accessibility and usability, especially for people with disabilities, we are following best practice guidelines. For example we have set up access keys (keyboard shortcuts) to enable navigation without a mouse within CommunityNet.
You can make text larger or smaller with your Browser's toolbar - click on 'View' and then on 'Text Size' (or 'Zoom').
Accessibility information
Click on a 'within page' link or scroll down to read about:
These access keys follow the NZ Government Web Guidelines, and take you to:
0 List of Access Keys (this page)
1 Home, and main navigation
2 Site map
3 Search
4 Left navigation
8 Submit pages - send news and advertisements
9 Contact Us
? Help
[ Beginning of content text on each page
/ Go to govt.nz
These number keys are pressed with other keys to activate them. The keys needed are as follows:
Windows Operating System:
- Internet Explorer: Alt & [key number], Enter
- Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, K-Meleon: Alt & [key number]
- Opera: Shift & Esc & [key number] (or Shift, then Esc, then [key number]).
Macintosh Operating System
- Mozilla, Firefox Netscape: Ctrl & [key number]
- Opera: Shift & Esc [key number]
- Internet Explorer: Ctrl & [key number], Enter
Linux Mandrake Operating System
- Galeon/Mozilla: Alt [key number]
Making text larger or smaller
The site design lets you alter the size of the text on your screen, using the 'View' menu, on your browser's toolbar. The next step varies between browsers:
- Internet Explorer 5+ (PC): in the View menu, select Text Size
- Safari (Mac): in the View menu, select Make Text Bigger (or press Command +)
- Firefox: in the View menu, select Text Size
- Opera: in the View menu, select Zoom
- Netscape 6+ : in the View menu, select Text Zoom
- Mozilla: in the View menu, select Text Zoom
- Internet Explorer 5+ (Mac): in the View menu, select Text Zoom
Notes:
1. This also changes the size for other web sites, until you reset your browser setting.
Browsers are continually adding features. This list is a snapshot of some key features (December 2006). Currently Opera probably has the most accessibility features.
Text resizing
Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 allow text size to be increased much further - use one of them if you need really big text. With Internet Explorer 5 and 6, there are limits on how much bigger text can be shown.
Zoom
Opera (in the View menu) and Internet Explorer 7 (control in bottom right corner of window) allow you to 'zoom' in. This increases image size as well as text, and preserves the formatting of the page, but may mean sideways scrolling to see the whole page.
Control of page style
In Opera (under View / Style) you can switch from Author Style to User (Selected) Style. This also allows you to switch to high contrast (White test on Black, or Black text on White). In Internet Explore you can do much of this in Tools / Internet Options / Accessibility.
Firefox allows you to switch styles off (in View / Page Style) giving a plain text & image page. Most other browsers also allow you to do this, usually in Advanced Internet Options)
CommunityNet was designed to be fully accessible to people with older equipment, slow connection speeds, relatively less familiarity with computing or with physical disabilities. The CommunityNet team give high priority to making and keeping the the website accessible, usable, and useful.
Ways we've done this include:
- To make the site as fast and responsive as we can, we keep page and image sizes as small as we can.
- The site has been written to allow you to alter the size of the text on your screen, by using your Browser's controls - usually by clicking on 'View' and then on 'Text Size'.
- The website has been tested with a wide range of browsers. For some older Netscape browsers you may prefer to switch Styles Sheets off in Edit / Preferences/ Advanced.
- The website has also been tested to be useable with images, style sheets, Activex and JavaScript switched off. (Some of non-essential site features do requires Images and JavaScript.)
A June 2005 accessibility and usability test showed that CommunityNet was well on the way to meeting accessibility guidelines. (Details of the test and report are included here as they will be of value to web-site owners in making their own websites accessible.) Changes were made for full conformance to mandatory guidelines and as many of the advisory guidelines as feasible. In February 2006, CommunityNet received an accessibility award to mark this achievement.
Some of the many changes made were:
- To make sure there was sufficient contrast and colour differentiation between text and background, for readability.
- To include the file type and size as part of the link for all links to downloadable files.
- To give large images links to text equivalents.
- To use 'styles' instead of tables for layout.
- To label Table and Forms fields accessibility software.
Please contact us if accessibility to a file or page is a problem and we will give it priority.
We've collected a number of hints and tools for accessibility in the Digital Strategy Hot Topic document: "Web content hits and tips".
e-Government guidelines say that use of Adobe PDF format alone is strongly discouraged; HTML (web page) versions should also be provided. Our policy is to publish key information in HTML except where there is a specific requirement for other formats e.g. RTF (Rich Text Format) might be used for downloadable applications or templates; all the main word processors can handle this format. However, some useful material is not available to us in HTML; please see the following disclaimer.
Much useful material is either provided to us in non-HTML format, is on other websites in non-HTML format, or doesn't meet the accessibility guidelines in other ways. For example much useful information is published in PDF documents that are not tagged for accessibility or even bookmarked.
We regret that we do not have the resources to convert external material for accessibility. Should you encounter an especially important document that is not accessible to you, please contact the owner of the website on which it resides, and please copy to information@community.net.nz.