Accessibility

Policy

To ensure equal access to electronic and information technologies, the City of Ottawa has developed a set of Web page design standards in recognition of persons with disabilities.

External Links

External links on this website will open in a new web browser window to ensure that you can easily return to Ottawa.com when finished with an external link simply by closing the new window.

Design Standards

These standards are influenced by those recommended by the W3C and Access Board. The Access Board is responsible for developing the standards outlined by the amended Rehabilitation Act of 1998. Universal design calls for appropriate use auxiliary aids and services where necessary to ensure communication.

We have adopted the Design of HTML Pages to increase accessibility to users with disabilities as the primary guideline to meet the objectives of the Universal Access for State Design policy. These published guidelines are maintained by professionals trained in the area of assistive and information technology.

The Universal Access Design Standards are being integrated into this website and will continue to evolve as new technologies and opportunities emerge.

1. Every graphic image will have an "alt" tag and a short description that is intuitive to the user. If a graphic image is used as a navigation element, it will contain text description and direction that is intuitive to the user.
2. Every graphic image that uses an image map, alternative text of the hyperlink will be provided.
3. Photographs that contribute to the content of a page will include a long description or a "D" to denote an alternative description. A "return" link will be provided on the description page to return the user to the page of origin.
4. This website will have descriptive, intuitive text links and avoid the use of vague references such as "click," "here," "link," or "this."
5. The use of frames will be avoided since they cannot be read intelligently by screen readers, create navigation problems and are not supported by all browsers. We cannot be held responsible for sites outside the network that utilize frames.
6. Tables will include textual information displayed in a linear form across the table, as well as cells will be named to aid as reference.
7. Background colors will be avoided since color schemes can create problems with legibility.
8. Multiple browser testing will be conducted on the current versions of Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer and Lynx.

Software Utilities

Adobe's PDF Converter allows you to convert regular PDF files to html. One of the required standards is providing, where applicable, an HTML alternative to PDF files.

http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html

Checklists

The following "Quick Tips" introduce some key concepts of accessible Web design.

http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips/