Web Accessibility Statement
An Open Commitment
HUBzero is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines.
Guidelines, Standards and Testing
HUBzero has been developed using the following:
- Section 508
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This website endeavors to meet or exceed the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- WCAG 2.0
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This website endeavors to conform to level AA standards, and where possible strive for AAA, as defined by W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. These guidelines provide web authors and designers with recommendations to help provide website content that is accessible to all users.
- Coding Standards
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Pages on this site have been authored to be compliant with current W3C standards for HTML (XHTML 1.0 Strict) and CSS. Standards-compliant code helps to ensure that visitors using assistive technologies (such as screen readers) are able to access the site contents.
- Addition Testing
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In addition to reviewing for compliance with the standards noted above, we periodically test with such technologies as the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, AChecker, and try to test with a range of assistive technologies (e.g., JAWS and WindowEyes screen readers). We also appreciate any input from third parties and assistive technology users from the community.
While HUBzero strives to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.
We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. In the meantime should you experience any difficulty in accessing the HUBzero website, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Navigation and Access to Content
- Keyboard Navigation
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For visitors who do not use a mouse, pages on this website should be fully navigable using a keyboard alone. Most modern browsers support keyboard navigation, but keystrokes and shortcuts may vary depending on your browser: consult your browser's Help menu.
- Access Keys
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To avoid conflict with keystrokes and keyboard shortcuts commonly used with some assistive software, access keys have not been assigned.
- Images
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All images that are not used for purely decorative purposes are assigned alt attributes and descriptive text. Non-functional, decorative images are not accompanied by descriptive text.
- Forms
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All forms designed by HUBzero should be appropriately labeled and keyboard-navigable. Where use of a CAPTCHA is required, a text-based version has been provided.
- JavaScript
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While JavaScript is used throughout the site, all pages are designed to be usable and navigable by users who have JavaScript disabled.
- Resizing
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Recent versions of most popular browsers provide 'Zoom' viewing options that will properly scale any text and images on a web page. For most browsers, zoom is typically accessed as follows:
- Windows and Linux: Use Control + or Control -
- Mac: Use Command + or Command -
- Adobe Acrobat PDF Files
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Many of the documents on the this site are in HTML or ASCII (plain text) formats. These formats are generally accessible to people who use screen readers. We also have a number of documents in Adobe Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF).
PDF format is used to preserve the content and layout of our hard copy publications. Publications in PDF can only be viewed and printed using the Adobe AcrobatReader®, version 3.0 or higher. You can download and get help using the Acrobat Reader at the Adobe Systems, Inc. site. The downloadable Acrobat Reader software is available at no charge from Adobe.
People using screen-reading devices generally are unable to read documents directly in PDF format, unless they have an accessibility plug-in installed on their system along with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This plug-in is available at NO CHARGE from Adobe. Adobe also has online tools that will convert PDF files to HTML on request. To get the plug-in and latest news about Adobe's accessibility tools and services, visit the Access Adobe site.
- PowerPoint and Word Files
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You can view our online publications that are in Microsoft PowerPoint® (.ppt) format if you have any version of PowerPoint installed on your computer. For those who don't have the software, the Microsoft Corporation offers a FREE PowerPoint file viewer. You can download and get help using the PowerPoint viewer at the Microsoft Download Center.
You can view publications in Microsoft Word® (.doc) format if you have Word, version 6.0 or higher, installed on your computer. Word documents can also be viewed with many other word processing software programs. Additionally, Microsoft offers a FREE Word file viewer that you can download at its Microsoft Download Center.
Contributed Content
While we make every effort to make sure that all pages designed and maintained by us are fully accessible, the accessibility of some contributed content is most often beyond our control.
Accessibility Resources
There are a number of resources available that describe the elements of accessible Web pages as well as listings of companies that provide assistive computer technology including screen reading software.