Accessibility features of this website
About access keys
Access keys (also called “keyboard shortcuts”) are key combinations, set up by the webpage designer, which may be used to move the mouse cursor from one page element to another. They can be useful for all of us, as a fast way of navigating a website.
Access keys active at this website
As a general rule, Microsoft Windows Operating Systems employ the Alt + access key combination, while Macintosh Operating Systems employ the Ctrl + access key combination. However, within individual browsers, keypress sequences for activation of access keys do vary considerably. A summary of most-current browsers is given below.
One also needs to understand that some browsers move focus to a link and others will automatically activate that same link. You will simply need to learn the behavior of your browser.
ACCESS KEY – behavior on this website
T – moves page focus to the top of the page.
H – moves page focus to the Home page (or the link on the “breadcrumbs” line on every page).
M – moves page focus to the Main Navigation menu on each page.
S – moves page focus to the Search tool on a page.
9 – moves page focus to Contact information (or its link).
All other access keys appear in the main navigation menu and are visibly underlined,
Browsers & access keys
How one activates an access key varies from browser to browser (the following description applies to the most-current versions of each browser):
- In the Mozilla Firefox browser, press [Alt] + [Shift} + [access key] to shift focus to the target link, which is then automatically activated.
- In the Opera browser, press [Shift] + [Esc] to display a little access key menu. Press a number key listed on the menu to activate the target link.
- In Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, press [Alt] + [access key] to shift focus to the target link, then [Enter] to activate the link.
The Opera browser is unique in its ability to display a menu of the access keys available on a given page. With the other browser you have to know them in advance, so they are detailed above.
Sadly, none of the major browsers document how they behave relative to access keys. None of their “Help” files mention this feature of current HTML. I cannot account for this.
Skip links
Vision-impaired website visitors are likely to be using some kind of software screen reader. It is convenient for them to be able to skip past certain sections of a webpage to immediately access its most important parts. “Skip links” make this possible.
Page top links. The very top of every page contains visible skip links targeting…
- the page contents listing
- the page title, and
- the page search tool
Website text logo
Page identity – for screen readers
To verify the identity of each page in the site to those using screen readers, the site title is placed as the first text element of every page’s HTML. (This element is not visible on the screen, however.)
Page header image/logo – links to homepage
A click on the visible site text logo (“Direct Path => Design”) – or the image in back of it – takes the visitor to the site home page.