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An important design guideline for our website at First United Methodist Church, Mays Landing, NJ, is to be conscientious of accessibility. This page describes a bit of our philosophy on website accessibility, and lists a number of techniques that we use in creating a website with the goal of improved accessibility.

Access Keys

Here is a list of the standard access keys on our site:

Access Key 1 (one)
Go to our home page.
Access Key 2
Jump to navigation menu.
Access Key 3
Go to our site map.
Access Key 8
Go to our privacy statement.
Access Key 9
Go to our contact page.
Access Key 0 (zero)
Go to our accessibility page (this page).

Access keys are a feature supported by some browsers to allow users to navigate through a page or site by using keyboard "shortcuts". Access keys can be used to select links without using a mouse or tabbing through a long sequence. This is helpful for people with limited mobility.

We use numbers rather than letters as our access keys. As a memory aid, we would prefer to use letters. However, when using letters as access keys there is a much greater likelihood of interfering with pre-existing keyboard shortcuts in either the browser or assistive technologies (such as Home Page Reader or JAWS).

The implementation of access keys in web browsers is a relatively new concept. As such, not all browsers support access keys, and some browsers with access key support don't always react as desired. Also, the method of activating access keys and their resulting behavior depends on your particular browser and operating system combination. For example, users of Internet Explorer on Windows may be able to navigate with the access keys by using ALT+AccessKey then Enter. Mac users would use CTRL+AccessKey, and Opera users would use Shift+Esc then AccessKey.

Accessibility Goals

We want to make it easier for persons with physical disabilities to access our site. Our site is designed to aid accessibility by people with impairments to their vision, hearing, or mobility.

We also want to make our site more accessible to persons with technological limitations. We recognize that there are several variations in computer hardware and software.

Standard Compliance

The foundation of targeting website accessibility is to comply with published standards. While many accessibility features can be objectively measured, many cannot, and are a judgment call on our part. Where possible, we try to ensure that all pages on this site comply with the following standards and guidelines. These documents are readily available on the Internet.

  • Section 508 Guidelines for Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications, published by the United States Federal Government.
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
  • HyperText Markup Language (HTML) 4.01 Specification, published by the W3C.
  • Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) 1.0 Specification, Second Edition, published by the W3C.
  • Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2, Specification (CSS/CSS2), published by the W3C.

Navigation Aids

We employ a variety of techniques that enhance the navigability of our website. Access keys, as described above, is one of these. Others include:

  • Give links TITLE attributes, which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
  • Whenever possible, write links to make sense out of context to support browsers (such as JAWS, Home Page Reader, Lynx, and Opera) which can extract links from a page and display them as a separate list.
  • Do not open links in a new window without warning.
  • Denote links to external sites (that is, websites other than our own) by using markup, and provide a graphical cue External Link Icon for external links.
  • Use LINK element definitions to specify relationships between pages on our site.
  • Use TABINDEX attribute to prioritize the tabbing order of page elements.
  • Provide a site map.
  • Use structured semantic markup. That is, page structure can easily be determined based on its markup (HTML tags) in elements such as headers and lists.
  • Avoid the use of frames.
  • Provide cues (menu shading, "breadcrumbs") which indicate the user's current location on our site.
  • Avoid self-referring links (pages that link to themselves).
  • Acknowledge that some users, either by preference or by necessity, do their web browsing without the use of a mouse.

Visual Design

A key element of our website's visual layout is the use of cascading style sheets (CSS). This eliminates the need for tables and frames, both which provide problems with accessibility. CSS allows for the separation of web page presentation style from the page content. Separating style from content helps text-only browsers and screen readers. It also gives the end user more control over the final look and feel of a webpage. Older (and non-graphical) browsers without full support (or no support) for CSS may result in a degraded appearance of our website, but the content will still be usable.

Other guidelines we follow:

  • Main content on each page is presented first (that is, before navigation links or other items).
  • Use relative (not absolute) font sizes to allow user resizing.
  • The use of tables and frames is minimal, if at all.
  • Carefully choose colors to provide reasonable contrast.
  • Avoid using only color to convey important information.
  • Avoid overriding default colors. (For example, to maintain user familiarity with visited links.)
  • Give consideration to different possible user screen sizes and color tables.
  • Provide a page design which is uncluttered and consistent throughout our site.
  • Use a page layout that is in keeping with the greater WWW community, to provide familiarity to web users.
  • When appropriate, define acronyms using HTML.

Images

The use of images is usually intertwined with a website's visual design. They also tend to be a subject unto themselves in many respects. When dealing with images on our site, we do the following whenever possible:

  • Realize that some users have browsers that do not display images in-line, and that other users choose to turn off images.
  • Include descriptive ALT attributes for content images. Use LONGDESC attributes for images with long descriptions.
  • Include null ALT attributes for purely decorative graphics.
  • Do not rely solely on images to convey information.
  • Allow our site to be navigated with images turned off in the browser.
  • Be critical of the size and reusability of images. This minimizes download times and takes advantage of browser caching of images.
  • Provide users with size hints for large images to help them gauge download times.
  • Use WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes on in-line images, which helps some browsers render pages quicker.

Technology

Simpler is better. We use these guidelines to provide a site which is generally more user friendly, easier to maintain, more robust, and less dependent on specific technology.

  • No dependence on JavaScript.
  • No distracting animation.
  • No unsolicited music.
  • No dependence on proprietary browser functionality.
  • Consideration for users with slower processors, older software, and low bandwidth Internet connections.

Some Exceptions

We realize that we are not going to please everyone. For example, we have no plans to translate our site into several hundred different languages. :-) Sometimes we step outside our own guidelines to take advantage of advanced features, or to ease the burden on our website editors.

Our calendar is one of these exceptions. It is a "plug-in" piece of software that would take considerable effort to modify. Plus it is intentionally presented as graphical element designed for browsers such as IE. It has difficulty performing to its fullest in text-only browsers. However, it was chosen over other software that was even less text-only compatible.

Another exception is our gallery. A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. It would be prohibitively time consuming for us to provide a lengthy description for every single picture posted. And like our calendar, our gallery is a "plug-in" piece of software that was chosen to provide a certain level of functionality while saving implementation time on the part of our webservants.