Access keys

Right across the site, it is possible to navigate by using access keys defined on the website. Most browsers support jumping to specific links in this way. On Windows, you press ALT and a specific access key and then ENTER to select and follow the specific link. On a Mac, you press CONTROL and an access key and then Enter.

• Access key 0 : Accessibility statement
• Access key 1 : Skip to content
• Access key 2 : Skip to navigation
• Access key 3 : Skip to footer links
• Access key 6 : Smallest Font Size
• Access key 7 : Medium Font Size
• Access key 8 : Large Font Size
• Access key 9 : Largest Font Size
• Access key q : Return to home page

Benefits of access keys

Users with visual impairments who use text-to-speech screen readers, like JAWS, benefit from access keys. For example, when JAWS reads a link that defines an accesskey, it announces the access key as well.

Users with certain physical impairments benefit from access keys as they provide alternative and efficient forms of navigation for those users who have difficulty manipulating a mouse to navigate through a website and who prefer to navigate using their keyboard.

Standards compliance

• Every page of the website complies with all Priority 1 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and conforms to all standards in Section 508 (29 U.S.C. 794d) of the Rehabilitation Act.
• Every page of the website exists as well-formed, valid XHTML with the visual layout and design controlled by valid Cascading Style Sheets.
• Every page of the website uses structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for section titles, H2 tags for main page sub-headings. Certain specialist browsers, such as screen readers like JAWS, allow users to navigate through pages by headings and sub-headings when they are properly marked-up in this way.

Navigation aids

Every page begins with invisible 'Skip to main content', 'Skip to global navigation', and 'Skip to global subsectional navigation' links. These allow users of text-only and screen-reader browsers to skip over page headers and navigation bars, and go straight to the main navigation menu or the main page content.

Links

• Many links have additional title attributes that describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the title of a page or section).
• Links make sense out of context (e.g., as bookmarks).

Images

Images are accessible to the maximum extent possible. All content images have more descriptive ALT-text attributes. Screen readers will read this text, and text-only browsers will display it so that, at the very least, users who have problems seeing images can get a sense of what the images are communicating.

Visual design

1. The website makes greater use of cascading style sheets for its visual layout and text formatting. We hope to eliminate layout tables and spacers once BGSU improves its master templates.
2. The size of all of the text on this site, including that contained in body text and navigation menus, is changeable by users via the 'text size' options in visual browsers.
3. If a browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content is still readable and usable.

Tables and forms

• All of the input elements for web forms are marked up with label tags. These provide several benefits:
  • Users who have difficulty navigating through a form with a mouse can, for example, click on the text beside the form elements, such as text input boxes, in order to enter those elements.
  • The use of label tags allows screen readers to intelligently announce what a particular input element is, by reading the label.
• All non-layout tables containing key content are marked with a summary, so that screen readers and speech browsers can read a description of the contents of tables when they first come across them.