Accessibility Features - Overview

The primary accessibility feature of this web site is that it is written to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) rather than some vendor's corruption of it. In addition to validating the syntax, I try to follow the semantics as well, although I must admit I have used some less-than-optimal markup because I couldn't convince the browsers to present it properly.

Further, I use XHTML 1.0 Basic , which strips away most of the presentational clutter retained from outdated versions of HTML, and is designed to work on cell phones, PDAs, voice readers, and other limited platforms. Even within this, I use no browser-side scripts, no motion, flashing lights, bells, or whistles. I regularly check the pages' presentation in the current Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 6.0SP2, and the text-based lynx, and occasionally through older versions of Konqueror or a cell phone (translated by google). I took myself through Mark Pilgrim's 30-day web course in accessibility (apparently no longer available online), then downloaded the W3C 's Web Content Guidelines and plowed through the check list, marking up abbreviations and acronyms, linearizing tables, and finally writing this guide to the site. If you place your cursor over an acronym or abbreviation in most visual browsers, the expansion of the term will appear as a tiny popup window, often called a tooltip. For an example, try W3C, EYC, or VOD .

Site Layout

As this site is a living document describing the activities of a diverse set of ministries, a linear layout was obviously out of the question. I decided to make every page have a direct link to every other page. (If you want to get from a layout page to a linear page or vice-versa, it might be two.) The general organization of the site is reflected in the nested list of the main navigation menu at the end of each page (usually displayed to the lower right). The main pages are listed first, followed by the miscellaneous rogue pages, then the following groups:

Organizations: A writeup on each of the various ministries and organizations within Christ Church. These range from two quick sentences to three or four paragraphs with pictures. Accessible from Organizations on the main menu bar.
Driving Directions: Driving directions from about a dozen locations ranging from under a mile away to over thirty miles. I have driven all of these myself (most only Pre-Katrina). Accessible from Directions on the main menu bar.
Email Forms: Send e-mail to the leadership and public pointsof contact of Christ Church. Accessible from Home , About Us , and Feedback .

High Traffic Areas

Home , Events , and Service Schedules are updated frequently (often daily) and appear in larger text on the link menu, as does About Us , which is not updated as often, but is of interest to browsers and other first-time visitors.

The Site Maps

The Auto-Generated Site Map is a list of the pages on this web site, sorted alphabetically by title. It also contains alphabetized lists of this site's web pages, this site's style sheets and images, and duplicates of all external links, including links to bible passages. It is automatically compiled by reaping all of the various links on the other pages. It is accessible from any page on the site through the main menu, or access key 3.

Access keys

Using access keys is browser-dependent, but many seem to use the Alt-# convention: Hold down the alt or other special key while pressing the number. In the case of Internet Explorer, this must be followed by the enter key to actually follow the link; in Mozilla and some others, the Alt-number is sufficient. The key codes are listed in the small menu list at the top of each page. The top list (row) of links is constant for all pages; the second list is used to skip into various points of the current document. The convention used of keys based on the the convention suggested in 30 days to a more accessible website :

Key 0: Accessibility Statement (this page)
Key 1: Home Page
Key 2: Skip Navigation Bars, and go to first content
Key 3: Site Map (a list of pages, images, style sheets, and links on the site)
Key 4: Site Search by WebGlimps (this search tool is provided by my web host and is not fully accessible.)
Keys 5, 6, and 7: Go to top-level headers or controls on the current page. Nearly every page uses key 5, about half use 6 and/or 7.
Key 8: Linear version of the current page
Key 9: Feedback (e-mail the web master)

Linear and Text Versions of Pages

Each page has a linearized version, which can be accessed by Key 3. These pages are automatically generated with the basic pages, so they are usually kept completely up-to-date with the layout versions. The following changes are made to linearize each page:

Any tables are linearized into definition lists, in which the defined term is a composite for the headers, and the cell contents are the definition. The table is linearized in row major order. (That means left to right quickly, top to bottom slowly.)
The document title is prepended with the word Linear.
All references to layout pages are transformed into references to the corresponding linear page, and vice-versa, including Access Key 3. Therefore, Key 3 can be viewed as a way to toggle back and forth between two parallel versons of the web site.
Many markup items which are purely to control layout have been removed.
The Style sheet is suppressed.
Occasionally, hidden information will be made visible which would help explain an image or other complex element. For an example, see the Road Map .

Text-only versions of these pages are not yet available. Please write me if these would be helpful to you, and let me know how you would use them. I keep getting caught between no-graphics html and straight fixed-column ASCII files. One of these days, I'll probably do both.

Philosophy

I try to write to the simplest version of the standards, so that the greatest number of browser applications can use it in some reasonable way. I'm also going to make the assumption that you use an application which complements your abilities; I'm not going to jump through hoops to try to make every bad app work for every possible user. I've also decided to abandon the truly ancient (pre-2000) browsers that don't understand XHTML or CSS .