Accessibility Features

Simple and Consistent
Our web site uses simple information architecture with uniform navigation and reliable headings throughout. Content layout and graphical design are consistent on every page.

Relative Font Sizing
The text on this website has been styled using a non-fixed value in a style sheet. This means that users can easily change the text size using their browser settings. Depending on which web browser you are using, this can be done in the following ways:

• Mozilla Firefox: select View > Text size or hold Ctrl and roll your mouse wheel
• Opera: select View > Zoom or hold Ctrl and roll your mouse wheel
• Safari: select View > Make text bigger or hold Ctrl and roll your mouse wheel
• Internet Explorer: select View > Text size or hold Ctrl and roll your mouse wheel
  
  

"Skip to:" Links
The "Skip to:" navigation appears at the top of each page. This allows assistive device users to quickly skip over the site header and navigation to the page content, the accessibility page (this page), or the page footer.

Main Site Navigation
The main navigation, located just below the title banner, and sub-navigation, usually located at the top-right of the page content area, both use lists. Lists make it easier for screen readers to literally read down the list without having to sort through unnecessary code. Lists also allow the users to use the tab key to move from link to link.

Images with Alternative Text
Unless they are purely decorative, all images have been given concise text alternatives. The text alternative is accessible to screen readers, and is visible when the mouse is placed over the image.

Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used for content layout and many graphical elements (color, font styles, titles, etc.) Using CSS for styling keeps our HTML clean, streamlined, easier to maintain, and it downloads faster. Style sheets can be replaced by the user's own styles.

To turn CSS off, and access the content without any formatting, download and install the Firefox Web Developer toolbar or the Internet Explorer Developer toolbar. With these toolbars turning CSS on and off is just a click away, plus they offer many other helpful tools.

Accessible via Mouse or Keyboard
You can use the mouse or keyboard to navigate through the site.
The Tab key will move the cursor from link, or tab-enabled element, to the next.
Shift-Tab will move you back to the previous link or tab-enabled element.
Use Enter / Return to select the highlighted item.