Accessibility Help

Introduction

Care has been taken to make this website accessible to users with a disability. Our moral responsibility is to ensure that people's ability to access this website is not limited by their disability. Under Australian law, website accessibility is mandated by the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, which requires equal access for people with a disability, where it can reasonably be provided.

This page describes the measures taken to provide accessibility for www.usefulgifts.org which is the website of TEAR Australia's 'Arguably the World's Most Useful Gift Catalogue'. Some of this accessiblity statement has been adapted, with permission, from the accessibility statement of 'Dive Into Accessibility'.

Access Keys | Top

To assist users with a disability, most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the website. Generally, on Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key. However, this behaviour differs in various browser versions and operating systems. View a list of common accesskey combinations for Macintosh and Windows.

All pages on this site define the following access keys, which are based on the UK Government's recommended standard for accesskeys:

Standards Compliance | Top

A note about accessibility compliance: As current accessibility guidelines are intentionally vague in some areas, and some accessibility features cannot be measured easily, compliance can be subjective. Therefore, while we hold the following to be true, your feedback is warmly welcomed, as we endeavour to make this website as accessible as possible.

1. All pages on this site are WCAG AAA approved, complying with all priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This means that the site has met all the recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines for web accessibility. The W3C is an international body which develops web standards, directed by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
2. All pages on this site comply with the accessibility guidelines of Section 508. Section 508 Guidelines are part of the US Federal Government Rehabilitation Act. The Guidelines require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Although the jurisdiction of the Guidelines do not extend to this website, Section 508 has become a global defacto standard for website accessibility, and the authors of this website have chosen to voluntarily comply.
3. All pages on this site are Bobby™ AAA approved and comply with all the Bobby™ guidelines. Bobby™ is a web accessibility testing tool which checks for compliance with existing accessibility guidelines, including Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act and the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
4. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict. This means the machine-readable language (XHTML) in which this website was written has passed industry standard verification, making it more accessible to people with a variety of different browsers and electronic media devices, and more accessible to people with disabilities.
5. All pages on this site use valid Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) version 3 for appearance and visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support CSS, the content of each page is still readable.
6. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles. This assists visually impaired users who rely on screen readers to access the website. Screen readers are an assistive technology which facilitates access to websites and other electronic media. For example, on this page, users of the JAWS® screen reader can skip to the next section within this accessibility statement by pressing the 'H' key.

Abbreviations and Acronymns

When an abbreviation or acronymn is used, the definition is given next to it, either in the text or using XHTML markup. Where markup is used, a grey dotted line is visible underneath the acronym or abbreviation, indicating that a definition is available by hovering over the item with the mouse pointer. These definitions are also accessible to screen readers and other assistive technology.

Navigation aids | Top

1. All pages have a "skip to content" link that allows screen readers to bypass the primary site navigation and jump to the main content of each page.
2. The machine-readable source of every page in this website is ordered to reflect the relative importance of each piece of information it contains. This makes it easier for users to find relevant information when accessing the site with screen readers or other technology which does not support CSS for visual layout.

Links | Top

1. Links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
2. Links are written to make sense out of context.
3. Many links have a machine-readable attribute (called a 'rel' attribute), which specifies the relationship of the linked document with the current document. In supported browsers, links which direct the user to a different website are indicated visually by a small blue arrow.

Images | Top

All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include empty (null) ALT attributes.

Visual Design | Top

1. This website uses cascading style sheets (CSS) for visual layout.
2. If your browser or browsing device does not support CSS, the content of each page is still readable.

Text | Top

1. Most browsers enable users to resize text to suit their preferences. For users who are unable to change the font size within their browser, this website uses server side scripting to enable text resizing in CSS capable browsers. To change the font size, click on the small (S), medium (M), or large (L) links in the upper right corner of every page.
2. This website uses high-contrast colour schemes to enhance text visibility. The site also uses bigger than average line heights and smaller than average paragraph widths to make text more readable.
3. This website is available in English, using the United Kingdom standards of spelling and grammar. Other language translations are not available at this time.

Script | Top

This website uses Javascript for certain usability enhancements but is completely functional without it. For example, the site functions completely in browsers and other media devices which do not support Javascript, or where Javascript is turned off.

Forms | Top

Forms on this website have been designed to be accessible to a variety of users. Input fields are associated with their labels, 'fieldset' and 'legend' tags are used.

Accessibility Software | Top

The following software may help users with a disability access this website and other websites:

• JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
• Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
• Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
• Links, a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.
• Opera, a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.

Common Access Key Combinations | Top

Note: This list is neither authoritative nor exhaustive.

Common Access Key Combinations

Operating system	Browser	Key combination
Windows	Internet Explorer (v5.0+)	Hold down the ALT key, press the access key, release both keys then press ENTER.
Windows	Firefox (prior to v2.0), Netscape (v6.0+), Mozilla	Hold down the ALT key and press the access key.
Windows	Firefox (v2.0+)	Hold down the ALT key and the SHIFT key then press the access key. Note: Numeric access keys are not supported in Firefox version 2.0+ for Windows (for more information about this, see the Firefox bug report).
Windows	Opera (v7.0+)	Hold down the SHIFT key and press ESCAPE, release both keys, then press the access key.
Windows	Internet Explorer (prior to v4.0), Netscape (prior to v6.0)	Not supported.
Mac OS	Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, Internet Explorer (v5.0+), Netscape (v6.0+), Omniweb, Camino	Hold down the CTRL key and press the access key.
Mac OS	Opera (v7.0+)	Hold down the SHIFT key and press ESCAPE, release both keys, then press the access key.
Mac OS	Camino, Netscape (prior to v6.0)	Not supported.

How to contact us | Top

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us using the details below:

• Email: info@tear.org.au
• Call TEAR Australia: (+61) (03) 9877 7444 Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm EST (GMT +11)
• Fax: (+61) (03) 9877 7944
• Post:
  TEAR Australia
  PO Box 164
  Blackburn
  VIC 3130
  AUSTRALIA
  

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