Accessibility statement for Academic Services

This is the official accessibility statement for the Princeton University OIT Academic Services web site. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail Academic Services. Much of verbage from this statement is adapted (with permission) from the official accessibility statement for the site Dive Into Accessibility.

Access keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press Alt + an access key (you may then have to press Enter); on the Mac OS, you can press control + an access key.

The home page and all archives define the following access keys:

• Access key 1 - AS Home page
• Access key 4 - Search box
• Access key 9 - Feedback e-mail link
• Access key 0 - Accessibility statement
• Access key s - Search button

Standards compliance

1. Princeton University does not yet have an official policy on Section 508 compliance. However, all pages on this site are authored to meet web accessibility guidelines as outlined in the Federal Rehabilitation Act’s Section 508 standards, §1194.22 and §1194.21. This is always a judgment call; many accessibility features can be measured, but many can not. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance (with one exception, outlined in the next item).
2. A few subpages of this web site may fall short of paragraph (b) of §1194.22: “Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.” We are working to correct this oversight.
3. All pages on this site should validate as HTML 4.0.1 Transitional. (Except for a marginwidth tag on each page, which is necessary to correct a cosmetic flaw in Netscape 4.x.) This is not a judgment call; a program can determine with 100% accuracy whether a page is valid HTML. For example, check the AS home page for HTML validity.
4. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H2 tags are used for paragraph subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+2.

Navigation aids

1. All pages should have a “skip navigation” link that should allow screen readers to bypass the primary site navigation and jump to the main content of each page.
2. The home page and all archive pages include a search box (access key 4).

Links

1. Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the headline of an article).
2. Links are written to make sense out of context.

Images

1. All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.
2. Complex images include LONGDESC attributes or inline descriptions to explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers.

Visual design

1. This site uses a combination of cascading style sheets and HTML tables for visual layout. Although HTML is a language meant for structural markup, not visual layout; layout tables and spacer GIFs remain a necessary evil for those who must support Netscape 4.x.
2. This site uses relative font sizes in the main body area. Text in the main navigation links use a fixed pixel size.
3. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.

Accessibility references

1. W3 accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.
2. W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline.
3. W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility.
4. U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility software

1. JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
2. Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
3. Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
4. Links, a free text-only web browser that maintains table layouts (for visual users with low bandwidth).
5. Opera, a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. For web authors, Opera provides a convenient button toggle to display pages with stylesheets and tables turned off. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.

Accessibility services

1. Bobby, a free service to analyze web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.
2. HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
3. Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer, a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
4. Lynx Viewer, a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.

Related resources

1. WebAIM, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.
2. Designing More Usable Web Sites, a large list of additional resources.

Recommended accessibility books

1. Joe Clark: Building Accessible Websites. This book is excellent. Comprehensive but not overwhelming.
2. Jim Thatcher and others: Constructing Accessible Web Sites. Less comprehensive than Joe Clark's book, but goes into greater depth in the topics it covers. Gives screenshots of how various screen readers and alternative browsers interpret various tags and markup. Also has a chapter on the current state of legal accessibility requirements.