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Accessibility Policy

INTRODUCTION

We apologize profusely to anyone evaluating the accessibility (or lack thereof) of this site.  Having been part of this industry for many years, our management is fully aware of the necessity to make this site as accessible as possible.  Given our resources and goals, we have elected to develop the site in two phases. The first is to create the general functionality of the site.  Once that is complete, we will immediately attend to the accessibility of the site. 

We thank you for your interest in our policy.  Once again, we apologize for the fact that a site dedicated to the vision impairment industry is not as accessible as it should be. As exemplified by the high user value we have created in the site, our programmers will make this site as accessible as it should be.  However, it will take us a bit of time to get there.

POLICY STATEMENT

We intend to, in time, comply to the highest level possible to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) [Appendix 1]

GUIDELINES

The Accessibility Policy for this web site has been developed based on World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Following these guidelines should ensure the mark-up of a documents content is written in such a way as to be accessible to:

• The inexperienced or technophobic
• The socially excluded
• Older users
• Disabled users

The W3C WAI recommends some quick tips that should be used to produce accessible web pages.

• Images and animations  - Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
• Image maps - Use client-side image maps and text for hotspots.
• Multimedia - Provide captioning and transcripts of audio and descriptions of video.
• Hypertext links - Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid 'click here'.
• Page organization - Use headings, lists and consistent structure. Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout and style where possible.
• Graphs and charts  - Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
• Scripts, applets and plug-ins - Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
• Frames - Use <noframes> and meaningful titles.
• Tables  - Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
• Check your work, validate - Use tools, checklist and guidelines at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/Res

IMPLEMENTATION

During phase one of development we will do our best to adhere to the policy, but do not guarantee our level of compliance.  Once phase one is complete, old pages should be updated to incorporate the guidelines where possible. From that point forward, new pages should be produced in line with the guidelines of section 3.

REVIEW

This policy will be reviewed regularly to take into account continually evolving technologies.

APPENDIX

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

The WAI works with organizations around the world to encourage content providers to consider the accessibility of their products.

For more information visit  http://www.w3.org/WAI

If you have any suggestions to improve compliance, please forward them to webmaster@ocusource.com

End of Document