www.dianemagee.com

HELP PAGE & ACCESSIBILITY TIPS

We've tried to make this website as user friendly and accessible as possible. If you experience any problems or notice something that could be improved, please email access@scratchwebdesign.com

This website does not rely on the use of a mouse to navigate and is designed to be operable using a keyboard, switching device, joystick or gesture-recognition device. A logical tab order is used to step through the links on each page using TAB to move down and Shift TAB to move back up through the links.

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We've tried to make text links as descriptive as possible, or they have been written so as to make contextual sense, so all links should describe their purpose reasonably well, however where additional information about a link might be useful, we've used 'title' attributes to describe the link in greater detail. This additional information is visible when the mouse cursor is held over the link or the link receives focus from an input device such as a keyboard. Users of assistive technology may also set screen reader options to take advantage of this feature.

This website is about the paintings and we recommend that users with visiual web browsers who may have disabled images re-enable their browser to display images. However, for visitors using assistive technologies we have provided a descriptive 'alt' attribute which provides a short text equivalent for the image. Information about each painting is also provided in an accompanying caption. Any images that are purely decorative and are not critical to site content have a null 'alt' attribute and should not add to screen reader "noise pollution".

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Resize Text

If you have difficulty reading text because it's too small you can increase the default text size for your browser. In most modern browsers, simply holding down the CTRL key and pressing the + (PLUS sign) key will increase the default text size. Pressing the + (PLUS sign) key again will further increase the text size. For non-keyboard users and for more browser specific instructions, please select your browser from the following list:

Firefox

  1. To increase text hold down CTRL key and press the + (PLUS sign) key
  2. To decrease text hold down CTRL key and press the - (MINUS sign) key
  3. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Text then selct Increase or Decrease.

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Internet Explorer

  1. For Internet Explorer 6: click View then Text and selct required text size
  2. For Internet Explorer 7: From the menu bar underneath the search field, select Page and point to Text size

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Safari (Windows)

  1. To increase text hold down CTRL key and press the + (PLUS sign) key
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Bigger
  3. To decrease text hold down CTRL key and press the - (MINUS sign) key
  4. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Smaller

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Safari (Mac)

  1. To increase text hold down Command key and press the + (PLUS sign) key
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Bigger
  3. To decrease text hold down Command key and press the - (MINUS sign) key
  4. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Smaller

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Opera

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select View then Zoom and select required zoom level.

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Enabling JavaScript

The Gallery and Contact Form on this website use JavaScript. You don't need to enable JavaScript, as the Gallery and Contact Form content are also accessible without it, but to better experience this and other websites it is recommended that JavaScript is enabled. For information about how to enable JavaScript, please select your browser from the following options:

Firefox

  1. Keyboard shortcut ALT T O N ENTER
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select Tools then Options.
  3. Select Content tab from the top row of options.
  4. Tick Enable JavaScript box.
  5. Note: You may wish to install the NoScript extension for Firefox to control which sites can run JavaScript.

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Internet Explorer

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select Tools then Options.
  2. Change to the Security tab at the top of the Internet Options window that pops up.
  3. From the list of Zones at the top of the Security options select the Internet icon.
  4. Select the button near the bottom that reads Custom Level.
  5. In the new window that pops up, scroll down to the item that reads Active Scripting.
  6. Select the option marked Enable.

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Safari

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select Edit then Preferences.
  2. Select Security tab from the top row of options.
  3. Tick Enable JavaScript box.

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Opera

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select Tools then Preferences.
  2. Select Advanced tab from the top row of options.
  3. Select Content from the left column of options.
  4. Tick Enable JavaScript box.

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Installing Flash

The music player requires Flash Player 8 or better and if you don't have an up-to-date Flash player installed you will not hear any music content. If you wish to install or update Flash, you can download an update from Adobe's Flash download page.

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Disable Background Music

Backgound music may be turned on or off by clicking on the speaker icon in the top right corner of the page. A link is provided for screen reader users at the start of each page to remove background music from the website so that screen readers can be heard. This link is not visible to sighted users using visual browsers. This link may also be used by keyboard users using Firefox by pressing TAB and ENTER when the page loads. This may be useful due to a known bug with Firefox where Flash content does not receive tab focus when using keyboard navigation preventing Firefox users from access the Flash content to directly control it.

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Standards Compliance

This website was designed to meet standards and recommendations developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is tested for cross-platform cross-browser compatibility and accessibility. If you're technically inclined, you can read on below for more detailed information, or you can visit the W3C website to find out why standards are important. Or you might prefer to just give the technical stuff a miss and return to the website's hompage.

W3C Recommendations

This website complies with W3C recommendations HTML 4.01 strict and CSS 2.1/CSS 3.

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) Conformance


Current Status

We are continually working to improve this website and to to further improve conformance to WCAG 1.0. Our goal is to make this website as accessible as possible to as many people as possible and to ensure a better experience for all users, including those with visual impairments or other disabilities. WCAG 1.0 is also the basis for the Irish National Disability Authority Guidelines for Web Accessibility. The current level of conformance is outlined below, with exceptions and annotations as noted at the end of this statement.

This website conforms to W3C WCAG 1.0 Conformance Level Double-A. The baseline for this claim is HTML 4.01 and the specification that this content relies upon is HTML 4.01 (strict).

This website also uses, but is not dependant upon the following specifications and technologies: CSS Level 2 Revision 1, JavaScript, GIF, JPEG and Flash. All content is still accessible if CSS ( Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript are disabled, and text alternatives to images are provided for browsers that do not support or have image display disabled. However, for this website, we strongly recommend enabling image display on visual browsers.

This website was tested for cross platform and and cross browser compatability and accessibility using the following user agents and assistive technologies: Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 (Windows, Mac), IE6, IE7, IE8, Opera 9 (Windows), Safari 3.1 (Windows, Mac), JAWS 9 and IBM alphaWorks aDesigner 2.0.

Exceptions and Annotations
  1. This website uses Flash to play an audio backing track and audio will not play without an up-to-date Flash player. However the audio content is considered non-essential and its' purpose is to provide an enhanced browsing experience and not to communicate important information.
  2. This website uses background music that starts automatically when each page loads. The music can be turned off using the audio control at the top of the page and a link is provided for screen reader users at the very start of each page to remove background music from the website so that screen readers can be heard. This link is not visible to sighted users using visual browsers, however, it may be accessed using keyboard navigation by pressing TAB.
  3. This page 'help.php' does not comply with WCAG Rule: 13.1.P2 - 'All Anchor elements are required not to use the same link text to refer to different resources'. The same link text (in this case the browser name) is used in different sections of this page to provide skip-links to relevent help information for that browser within that section. This should not present an accessibility issue.

If you have any useability or accessibility problems with this website please let us know by emailing access@scratchwebdesign.com, Comments or suggestions are always welcome. Please reference dianemagee.com in the subject line of your email.

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Update Your Browser

Your choice of web browser may be out of your hands. However, if you do have control over what browser you are using you may want to periodically check for updates and keep it current. Doing so will improve your web experience, enabling you to use and view sites as their creators intended.

To check whether your browser is up-to-date, and if neccessary upgrade, choose your browser from the following list of browsers by clicking the browser icon (or text link if images are disabled).

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