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This
website incorporates principles of Universal Design, making it as accessible
as possible to all individuals. Some features apply to all of those who
visit the site, other features have been used particularly for deaf and
hard-of-hearing users, while other features are intended to be helpful for
blind or low-vision individuals.
All portions of the site are set up for maximum ease of use and readability,
making the site available to all persons. This principle is the heart of
Universal Design.
Video segments showing individual signing have all been captioned to ensure
those who do not know sign language can access this material.
The Betsie software program,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie,
has been used to translate each page into a text-only page.
All pages (except the introductory page) have a ‘text-only-page’
link found consistently in the upper left hand corner of the page.
All images have ‘alt’ tags each with sufficient textual material
to describe the appearance of the image or to identify its function. (Where
empty images have been used as spacers on the page, the alt tag contains
no text “ ”.)
Each video has an associated ‘longdesc’ tag that
provides text translation of what is spoken or signed in the video. In addition, to
accommodate browsers not yet able to support these long translations, the
standard ‘D’ link below the video provides a manual link to the text
translation.
Rollover buttons use maximum visual contrast to make information as clear
as possible for low-vision users.
The CLASS ACT typeface in the content areas is set in Georgia, a typeface
designed specifically for legibility and readability on a computer screen.
Italic (italic) type, which can be difficult to read on a computer screen,
has been minimized;
instead, type size, weight, and line spacing are used to emphasize topics.
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