Improving Web Site Accessibility

This article explains to users how they might improve their viewing pleasure of our site by making a few changes in their software and/or hardware settings on their computer.

Web Accessibility

Times have changed, and this web page has evolved from the issue of achieving a consistent look in different alternative web browsers to its present topic of web accessibility. Some viewers might find the "Best Viewed with" title irritating, yet for this web site it stands for our attempt to improve web accessibility for all.

Web Site Accessibility: What is it? And, how to achieve it is still very debatable. Here, in Lesson 1 we see a web site that presumes to teach web developers how to achieve it. Yet, is itself so poorly designed that it uses a fixed page width that shows up in Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the most commonly used web browser, rather than automatically conforming to whatever screen resolution the user happens to be using. This webmaster, for one, experienced a visual accessibility problem trying to read that supposedly well designed web page, because he finds web pages that require horizontal scrolling next to impossible to read. While in Mozilla's Firefox web browser there is no apparent page width problem. So, achieving Web Site Accessibility is still more of an art than a science.

This is a well designed informational web site. It is NOT using any of the latest and greatest fantasy graphical based web features. Nor, does it use sound. We are fully Text Accessible. The web pages here are designed to automatically conform to whatever screen resolution the user happens to be using. We comply to a few basic coding concepts, even if the code does NOT comply to specific W3C HTML coding standards. And, most of all we have achieved a consistent look in a large number of different web browsers. What else can a low budget web site be expected to do? After all, there are over 4,000 different languages currently in use on planet Earth. English is currently the language of choice. And, most people are in fact able to see. This web site pays attention to what the majority of viewers are using. However, if any funding source is willing to finance better web accessibility please email this web site.

In addition, web accessibility is largely the responsibility of the user to implement, rather than that of the web site operator. The webmaster's responsibility begins and ends with a good web page design. A well designed web site offers no accessibility barriers to those who know how to exercise their options. In the end, the computer user must always make the correct choices. For example, users can sometimes deal with web pages that require horizontal scrolling by reducing the font size, either with text zooming or with Microsoft's text size command. Or, you could simply switch to another web browse, such as Mozilla's Firefox. However, these tactics do not always work on some poorly designed web pages.

Multilingual Web Accessibility

This web site is written in only one language: English. Quite frankly, just about the only way that you will find this web site on the Internet is to search for it with terms written in the English language. So, the push to increase the language accessibility of health web sites is probably just a futile academic exercise.

Foreign users can automatically translate this web site by using the AltaVista Babel Fish Translation graphic icon which is available on a number of top level web pages. This feature requires you to click on the flag icon that corresponds to the language of your choice. Once you have translated the first page, all succeeding web pages will be automatically translated. This feature is presently graphics based and requires the use of JAVA script. Suggestions for improving this feature should be directed to AltaVista.

Also, you can translate this web site into various other languages by installing 3rd party web browser toolbars that offer web page translation services.

Google is a large multi-national company with operations in many different foreign countries. Google offers a good web page translating toolbar. However, before you can translate the current web page you must first have selected the PageRank Display in their options after the toolbar has been installed successfully in your web browser. Then you must click on the PageRank drop down menu icon for the web page translating option.

Also translating services are offered by various web sites such as Google's Language Tools. But, you might get better results by purchasing translating software.

Visual Web Accessibility

The first place to look for answers to your potential accessibility problems is your choice of computer hardware. Are you using the correct size video monitor for your level of visual acuity, for example? If needed, do you have hardware and/or software / screen readers, such as JAWS® for Windows, installed that will automatically translate text into audio? Also, is your video display card / monitor showing signs of wear? In other words, is your video display card or monitor defective? If so, you should replace them.

Next, is your operating system set up correctly? Is your choice of the most appropriate screen resolution for your level of visual acuity correct? You may be surprised to learn that you usually have a choice of several different screen resolutions and default font sizes to choose from. You must choose correctly whether you prefer larger or smaller font sizes. Further, have you installed any needed accessibility options offered by your computer operating system?

Next, are you using a web browser that provides for text zooming? With text zooming you can automatically increase or decrease font sizes on any web page at the touch of a few key strokes, such as with Ctrl +. Does your choice of web browser allow you to select your own choice of fonts on any web page? If not, why not?

Finally, if you cannot read text with a graphics background are you browsing the web in Text Mode Only Access? If not, why not? After all, if you do not like graphics why not simply avoid graphics entirely by turning text mode access on in your web browser?

If you have special needs are you using a web browser that is specifically designed for people with disabilities? If not, why not?

All of the above accessibility choices are under your own control. It is your responsibility to implement them. This web site will work quite well with any and all of the above options.

This is a cross-browser, and cross-platform friendly site.

We are starting to use Cascading Styling Sheets (CSS) with validated W3C 4.01 HTML coding. So, we have dropped full support for the older versions of many web browsers in favor of faster loading times for our web pages. Netscape v4 is used to represent all the older CSS challenged browsers. With a CSS challenged browser the page title is clearly visible in red. The web page template will display the wrong fonts at the wrong sizes. Our company logo graphic and page footer will look a little funny. And, the graphic display backgrounds are no longer visible. All the informational content on this site is accessible no matter which browser you are using, because our articles have been tested with Netscape v4.

• In Text Mode Only Access
  • The navigational aides (i.e., Header, Footer, and Left Margin) have a color safe light yellow background.
  • The informational content (i.e., Right Margin) has a color safe light blue background. Some pages use a pure white background.
  • All graphics use Alternate Text which is clearly visible in Opera v5.
• No guarantee is made that this site will look the same in all respects, equally pretty, dazzle you, or load fast in ALL web browsers. If a particular web page looks funny, the problem is probably your browser or browser settings.

This site is fully Text Accessible.

The Opera web browser was found to offer better Text Only Access than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The Opera web browser is recommended for best text only viewing.

This site is best viewed with Microsoft's Internet Explorer

If Internet security was not an issue, this site would be best viewed with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. This site was originally developed with Microsoft's FrontPage Express. This is why our site is best viewed with a Microsoft's Internet Explorer compatible browser. Currently, each of our articles is developed in a W3C 3.2 HTML compliant WYSIWYG editor that produces clean HTML code. Each article is then cut and pasted into a web page template in 1st Page 2000 that uses a straightforward table-based layout that works quite well in the most popular web browsers. The font sizes are defined with the point system used in most word processors. The web page template has been designed to give a consistent look in a variety of different browsers. Our new HTML code validates. So, if our articles look funny you should blame your browser or browser settings.

Everyone in the New Millennium should be using an Alternate Browser.

Microsoft's IE and email program have been attacked by hackers so many times that it is simply NOT safe to continue to use them on the Internet. The easiest way any user can increase their Internet security is by STOP using IE as your default browser. Of course, you still have to set up your Internet security options correctly no matter which browser you are using.

The owner and operator of this web site is currently using the Foxfire alternate web browser. He is also using online email and newsgroups exclusively. This web site looks a little funny with the Foxfire browser. The graphic backgrounds are lighter and more subdued. Some brown and blue based graphic backgrounds are radically changed by Foxfire with blotches of vivid green which simply are not visible in IE. The scrolls at the bottom of the web pages do not function in Foxfire. But overall, the text is more readable in Foxfire due to the lighter background graphics.

Mozilla's Firefox is a small browser that comes without an email and newsreader program. A nice feature of Foxfire was that as part of the installation process it gave you the option of importing all your data from IE, like favorites / bookmarks and passwords. This makes converting over to a new browser, as easy as it is going to get. I was also able to install the Google Toolbar in Foxfire. Other handy features are tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and the ability to search bookmarks/favorites.

Screen Resolutions

The ideal screen resolution to view this site is 1024x768. At 800x600 the site's logo graphic and menu buttons appear slightly too big. This web site was designed to cater to the majority of viewers who use a screen resolution between 800x600 and 1024x768. The smaller displays will look better with the smaller fonts, while the larger displays do better with the larger fonts.

The more frequently used pixel screen resolutions are 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024. Using anything higher than 1024x768 is unusual, unless you happen to have a 21-inch video monitor. Due to the existing technological advances in video display the 640x480 format is all but obsolete. Using the 640x480 display format, however, should NOT require any horizontal scrolling, thanks to the use of a smaller logo graphic.

No matter what screen resolution you are using this site should look sharp and clear. If any web page looks grainy then either you are using the wrong software driver for your display hardware, or your hardware is defective.

FULL SCREEN access is, also, available in many web browser such as by hitting the [F11] function key in Microsoft's IE. In Full Screen access, most of the browsers headers and footers are not visible. Thus, more of the informational text of our site is visible in Full Screen mode.

Anybody having trouble viewing this site should seriously consider upgrading to one of the following FREE web browsers. To see how your web browser measures up, check out the sample test web page. Internet Explorer users might consider using an alternative web browser because the latest version of Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla support Text Font Zooming.

• Internet Explorer for Windows
• Netscape -- supports Windows and Mac OS.
• Netscape's open source Mozilla project -- supports Microsoft Windows (95,98,ME,NT,2000,XP), AIX, Linux, Mac OS, OpenVMS, HPUX, and FreeBSD.
  • Mozilla's Firefox
• Opera -- supports Windows, BeOS, Linux/Solaris, Mac, OS/2, and Symbian OS.
• Konqueror -- a modern graphical browser for Unix/Linux.
• Apple's Safari -- for the Mac, and Windows XP or Vista

Alternative Web Browser Review

As we are starting to use Cascading Styling Sheets, we have dropped support for the older versions of many web browsers in favor of faster loading times for our web pages.

The appearance of each web page will differ from what was intended when viewed with an older version of an Alternative Web Browser. You may *not* see this site as intended, unless you use the latest version of one of the above Web Browsers.

To see how your browser measures up, check out the sample test webpage.

Netscape Navigator

Version 4.08

• This web site was redesigned in order to provide a consistent acceptable look with this older version of Netscape.
• To see updates to this website in Netscape click on the Edit menu and select Preferences, Advanced, Cache, and Document in cache is compared to document network. Then click on Once per session.
• Tables
  • Unable to deal with tables whose width is written as a PERCENTAGE of screen width.
    Catering to viewers using low resolution screen modes, problem tables are now fixed with a width of 400 pixels.
• Graphics Mode
  • Failed Invisible Tables Test -- Tables are containers for text and images on a Web page. Invisible tables show up as ghosts in background images. With Internet Explorer invisible tables remain invisible, as intended.
  • Failed Table Padding Test -- Background images of Table Padding appears as the default Background image rather than the same as the Table Background image, as in Internet Explorer.
  • Failed Table Cell Test -- Background colors of Table Cells are *not* visible. But, background images are visible.
  • Failed Music Test -- No music is heard upon loading.
• Text Mode
  • The two Colored backgrounds of light yellow and blue are not visible. A few tiny single squares of color do appear randomly on the page.
  • The Alternative Text labels for graphics are randomly missing. As the menu is graphic, you cannot navigate as intended in text only mode. The missing labels do appear, however, with a mouse pass over.

Opera 5

• To see updates to this web site in Opera click on the File menu and select Preferences, History and cache, and Check Modified. Then set Days, hours, min to 1,0,0 (or to what ever update frequency you want) for Documents, Images, and Other respectively. Next, click on Apply and then Ok.
• Neat Feature -- Hitting the G key on your keyboard switches you smoothly between Text and Graphics mode.
• Failed Graphic / Text alignment test -- But, does a good job of alignment in middle of text.
• Failed Multiple Bulleted hierarchies test -- The hollow dot & square bullets are not available.