Website Accessibility and Usability Statement

InternetTIPS.com has made a significant commitment to explore and implement new methods to ensure its information is accessible to as many visitors visitors as possible, including audiences with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments. As a result, in this new, continually evolving website, we are examining techniques that can help us meet key accessibility standards, including exploring the guidelines laid down at:

• The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (external link)
• Bobby (external link) and
• The The Royal Institute for the Blind(RNIB) (external link)

InternetTIPS.com welcomes any feedback which may help us improve the accessibility and usability of this website.

The Disability Discrimination Act

Under the UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995, any company who provides a service to the general public is legally obliged to make their information, including web-based information accessible to all customers.

During 1999, the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) came into force throughout the UK. Part III of the DDA refers to the provision of goods, facilities and services. Although not directly cited, websites fall into the category of services and therefore need to be accessible in order to comply with the Act.

The DDA Part III Code of Practice states:

2.2 : "The Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public."

4.7 : "From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services."

More information is available at the Disability Rights Commission (external link) website.

Working To Improve Our Website Accessibility

We're exploring way to help our site reach the WCAG A standard and eventually AA, followed by AAA (the highest accessibility ranking) standards, for all key pages we make available. Some steps that we can take can't easily be verified by automatic tools and such steps are a judgment call. We'll do our best to keep improving. Even if we reach our goals, occasionally, we may make some mistakes, however, InternetTIPS.com is committed to addressing access errors promptly.

Navigating Around InternetTIPS.com Using a keyboard

In our previous web design, the site was completely navigable using only a keyboard, so naturally, we want to create the same standard on this web site. Therefore, instead of using a mouse, you can use a keyboard or keyboard-compatible device to move around InternetTIPS.com. However, at the time of writing, using a keyboard is still not as easy as using a mouse. To address that issue, we are exploring several ideas that can help improve keyboard-based navigation.

When moving around content pages, our site automatically detects when you are using a keyboard:

• You can use the TAB and ENTER keys, plus any other/alternative keys that your browser may set aside to move around the site and for navigation purposes. For example, when using an Opera web browser on a Microsoft Windows-based PC, typically, you can use the A and Q keys for tabbing through links, and use the Spacebar to execute a link.
• When using the TAB key, our website code automatically detects keyboard use, so you can bypass opening the drop-down menus.
• When first coming to the site using a keyboard, when you press the TAB key once, immediately to the left of the Search box at the top of the screen, you'll see a "Skip Nav" or Skip Main Navigation" link appear more visibly. This link is normally almost invisible to users who navigate around our site using a mouse. When the "Skip Main Navigation" link is visible, you can press the ENTER key to bypass the drop-down menus and go straight to the content area of the current page.
• Or, if you prefer, you can simply continue to press the TAB key several times to step through to the main site horizontal navigation bar menu buttons. To further assist with keyboard-based navigation, at the bottom of each page, we have provided "Jump to Main Navigation Bar" link that can take you quickly to the main site navigation at the top of each page.

Some Accessibility Steps We Have Taken

To improve our website accessibility, this website: http://www.InternetTIPS.com/ now includes the following key features:

• Web browsers: naturally, we cannot test our web site design with every web browser, however, InternetTIPS.com is optimized for use on a wide range of web browsers. Our core web design is fully compatible with Microsoft IE6, IE7, Safari 2, Firefox 1.5+, Opera 9, OmniWeb, Shira, and Netscape web browsers. Usually, the latest web browsers offer the best viewing experience. You can download the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (external link), Netscape (external link) and FireFox (external link)
• Web template design code: has been tested to meet XHTML 1.0 Transitional, with W3C valid XHTML and CSS.
• Text-only version: at the time of writing, we are exploring how to provide a text-only version of this website. When available, you can try out the text-only version of the current page using the "Text Only Version" link provided on the top-most navigation menu.
• Sentences and paragraphs: to improve understanding, help reduce any potential eyestrain, we seek to:
• Consider ways to make our website topics easy to read and understand.
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.
• Ensure that there is a space between each paragraph or heading.
• Use bullet points to break up more complex sentences.
• General site layout: is achieved using a carefully considered design based on Cascading Style sheets (CSS) and tables where necessary. However, InternetTIPS.com is designed in such a way as to still present information clearly even if a user chooses to turn off style sheets.
• Consistency across pages: to help as you move around InternetTIPS.com, we have kept the design and layout of navigation links the same throughout the site pages. Also, to avoid causing problems for people who may use screen readers or those who may choose to resize the text, we do not use pictures of words in our site navigation menus. Navigation menus use pure accessible text instead.
• Colors: we use color combinations in the design of the website that provide good color contrast, especially where links are provided within content items.
• Frames: we don't use frames since frames can present unnecessary additional difficulties to some types of web access device.
• Text links: each text link is formatted to ensure that it can be seen easily; that its meaning is clear; and the page to which it links is clearly indicated. Many links also have title attributes that describe the link in greater detail, except where the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the headline of an article). Links are written to make sense when read out of context.
• Resizing website text: by default, we use an easy-to-read, non-serif font type, size and color to aid onscreen reading. At the top of each page, we've also included three quick-change text adjuster buttons. In addition, InternetTIPS.com uses cascading style sheets that allow users to resize the text of the website in web browsers that include text resize commands. Some existing web browsers include a text resize command somewhere in the View menu. However, at the time of writing, text resizing does not perform perfectly on some Microsoft IE browsers. One remedy to consider: some later IE browsers include a page zoom feature that can magnify a web page up to about 150% of default size.
• Access Keys: we have deliberately avoiding using Access Keys since they may interfere with shortcut keys that are provided in adaptive technology browsers. In addition to using a mouse, all visitors can navigate the website using a keyboard or keyboard-compatible device.
• Site map pages: a site map can help you find the information you want. A link to a sitemap index of InternetTIPS.com is available on the main site navigation bar at toward the top right of every page.
• Alt tags for images: as recommended in the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), we use an "alt" tag to provide an equivalent text description for each image. Information embedded in Alt tags help users who may listen to the content description of the website using a screen reader. Purely decorative graphics include null "alt" attributes. For more rarely used complex images, where possible, we include "longdesc" attributes or inline descriptions that explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers.
• Breadcrumb site navigation: at the top of the main center column on every page includes a "breadcrumb" navigation trail that enables a visitor to easily navigate around the current branch of InternetTIPS.com. You can also use the breadcrumb navigation trail to better determine where you are within the overall website structure.
• Web forms: web form controls are labeled clearly and grouped properly. Where possible, we use CSS to determine the layout of forms.
• Links to external websites: are usually formatted so that a new, second browser window displays when a user chooses the relevant link. We also insert the text: "(external link)" at the end of links that lead to pages on other websites.
• PDF files: some documents are available for download in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). To view PDF documents, you will need a PDF reader. The most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader provides support for Accessibility screen readers. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader (external link)
Adobe also provide an Accessibility page (external link) that explains how vision-impaired users can configure Adobe Reader to work with the assistive technology.
• Also, you can now open up PDF files in your Internet browser: more information
• Earlier web browsers: InternetTIPS.com uses carefully crafted cascading style sheets to preserve a consistent look and feel across a range of web browsers and other types of website viewing devices.
• However, some earlier web browsers such as Netscape v4.x and earlier, and Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.x and earlier, do not fully support cascading style sheets.
  
• If you are viewing InternetTIPS.com using a version of these older, arguably flawed browsers, some website components may behave differently, unless you disable style sheets.
• Usually, you can disable style sheets through your web browser settings. To avoid most display problems, whenever possible, consider upgrading to the latest web browser.

Downloading Files Without Printing

To download and save a file without viewing:

1. Right-click the mouse cursor on the relevant link.
2. Choose or click 'Save Target As'.

How To Convert PDF Documents To Text

A range of current screen readers can read documents that are in HTML or ASCII format.

The latest technology allows you to convert Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents that may be available online, to either HTML or ASCII text format.

At the time of writing, we can suggest two options:

• Web-based forms submission tool: here, a user can first enter the URL or web address of the PDF into an electronic form. Then, choose the "Get This PDF Document as HTML" button. The relevant document is then converted "on-the-fly" to HTML format and immediately delivered to your web browser.
  
  Convert your PDF using the web (external link)
• E-mail submission tool: here, a user can send the URL or web address of the PDF using e-mail, to have the PDF converted to HTML or ASCII text format. Then, usually within minutes, the converted results are returned back to the sender in the body of a new e-mail message.
  
  Convert your PDF using e-mail (external link)

Responding To Usage Difficulties

If you experience difficulty viewing a web page at InternetTIPS.com using assistive technology, to ensure that we can make the information you are seeking available to you, please:

• Contact the webmaster at InternetTIPS.com: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone: 01470 582474 (from outside the UK: + 44 (0)1470 582474).
• Describe the nature of the accessibility problem you're experiencing.
• Indicate the web address URL containing the accessibility problem you've found.
• State the format in which you would prefer to receive the information you're seeking.
• Provide your contact information.

Additional Related Links Also Under Accessibility:

• Changing Your Web browser settings

Thank you for using InternetTIPS.com.

InternetTIPS.com Customer Support Services.

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