Simple Island Wedding Accessibility Statement

Simple Island Weddings is committed to making this website accessible to all internet users, no matter what their abilities or disabilities may be. On this page, we will outline this site's accessibility features and limitations (which are few). Please contact us with any comments or questions, or if you find any area of this website to be inaccessible to you.

Standards Compliance

Every page on Simple Island Weddings meets or exceeds the following Web Standards. (The slide shows on the Links and Contact Pages prevent us from having the highest ratings on all pages, as they require the use of a Java applet.) Automated testing of web content accessibility was done with the HiSoftware® external link Cynthia Says(TM) Tester. Also, a visual check of the website, with and without styling, showed that all of the factors not capable of being tested automatically were in accordance with the standards.

Level A conformance, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 (level A) of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (most pages are priority 1, 2, & 3 - level AAA)

Level A conformance, Disabilities Act Section 508 Priority 1 (level A) U.S. federal government Disabilities Act, Section 508 Guidelines (most pages are priority 1, 2, & 3 - level AAA)

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Coding validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. (most pages are XHTML 1.0 Strict)

Valid CSS! Valid CSS is used for visual layout, but the content is still readable if your browser or browsing device does not support it.

Browsing Without a Mouse

Tabbing: All of the links and form-input features on Simple Island Weddings are accessible without the use of a mouse pointer. Tabbing may be used to reach each such feature in order, either in a forward (TAB) or reverse (Shift + TAB) direction. Any link reached by tabbing may be activated either by clicking the link with a mouse, or by hitting the ENTER key.

Skip to Main Content: Just before the main menu on the left side of each page is a "hidden" link, which becomes visible only when it is reached by tabbing. This link may be used to skip the main menu, and go directly to the main content of the page.

Access Keys: Most browsers support jumping to important links by typing special "access keys" defined on the website. To use this feature:

  • On Windows, press ALT + the access key
  • On Macintosh, press CTRL + the access key

Here are the access keys defined on this website, which should not clash with the accessibility keys used by your browsing device:

  • Access key 1 - Return to the Home Page
  • Access key 2 - Skip to Main Content

Links

All links have a 'title' attribute, in order to more fully describe the target page. The title text becomes visible when the mouse is hovered over the link. All links open the new page in the same browser window, as it is no longer standards-acceptable to open it in a new window. However, if you want to do this, you can right-click on the link and choose that option. Links leading to an external website are clearly marked with the external link symbol. (The exception to this rule would be if the link uses a clickable image, rather than text.)

Forms

Forms are made accessible to screen-readers by using a 'label' tag, so that the information to be entered into the form-input is clearly identifiable.

Images

All images have an 'alt' attribute, so that people using a screen-reader will know what the image represents. This is true even for purely decorative images and images used as list markers. In many cases, the image will also have a 'title' attribute (since the 'alt' tag is not visible on mouse-over when using the Firefox browser). This enables the image to have a small popup title in most browsers.

Scripts

Javascript is used on every page. However, the scripts are unobtrusive, degrade gracefully, and are backwards compatible. Following is a description of each script used on Simple Island Weddings, along with the pages on which each is used.

  • navload - used on all pages - This script puts the little palm tree on the menu next to the name of the page (a convenience for the site user, to make it easier to see which page is being viewed).
  • mailTo - used on all pages - Makes the email link in the small pink box invisible to spam robots, so the owner of the website is not flooded with spam.
  • currentYear - used on all pages - Puts the current year after the copyright sign at the bottom of the page (a convenience for the site owner, who now doesn't need to remember to change this date every January 1).
  • hoverTip - used on all pages - For every object on the webpage that has a 'title' attribute, causes a nicer-looking popup which displays the title text. Used for all links , to describe something about the page being linked to. Used for many images to give information about the picture being displayed. And also used to define any words not in common usage, or to give the meaning of an acronym or abbreviation.
  • enterHit - used on the Home page only - Along with a Perl script, this javascript gathers some information about each visitor to this page: IP address, web page the visitor is coming from, and an identifying ID if that page has provided a link to this website. If the visitor used a search engine to find us, the name of the search engine plus any keywords used is also gathered. This information is then recorded in our database, and is used to help the owner plan effective advertising strategies. (All of this information is available to any website owner when their site is visited; none of it is considered private.)
  • submitForm - used on the Packages and Contact pages - This script is required in order to submit the form on each page. However, neither form is really necessary. A Wedding Package can be arranged by emailing the site owner, and email can also be used in lieu of the Contact page. The script serves two purposes: to prevent hackers from sabotaging the website through the forms (this can happen quite easily if the address of the form-submission page is available to the hacker's automated robot), and to prevent the form-user from double-clicking on the submit button (which would submit the same form twice).
  • OrderForm - used on the Packages page - keeps a running total of all items added to a Wedding Package.
  • SlideShow - used on the Links and Contact pages - Shows pictures of couples who have had a Simple Island Wedding. This is a combination script: if Internet Explorer is being used as a browser, the slideshow uses javascript. If any other browser is in use, the slideshow will use a Java script (Yes - they're different). The main reason for this singling-out of Internet Explorer, is that ALL scripts using Active-X controls in this browser must also add an annoying feature which we wanted to spare Simple Island Weddings users. (If you use IE, you may have noticed this feature before. The applet "jiggles around" when the page is scrolled, and if the mouse is hovered over the applet, a tooltip comes up that says, "Click to activate and use this control".)

As you can see from the above, the scripts are not really necessary in order to get full use of the webpages. Rather, they provide certain conveniences for the user or for the owner of the site.

We hope that this page has given you some insight into our efforts to make this website an enjoyable experience for everyone.


Professor
Webmaster, SIW