The Optelec website was designed keeping the visually impaired in mind.  Design steps have been taken so that  this website is accessible to those visually impaired people that are using screen reading and enlargement software.  This means closely following W3C, Bobby and other accessibility guidelines, testing the site carefully, and being open to feedback.

Text size

On-screen '+' and '-' buttons are available for resizing text on any Optelec webpage to make it easier for those that do not own screen enlargement software.

When using the world wide web, both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox have incorporated built-in options that will assist with browsing websites that have not made modifications to meet a low vision user's needs. In Windows, you can choose the View menu, Text Size option to change text size. (The keyboard shortcut is Alt-V, X). Other browsers are likely to have the same or similar options. To zoom in and out of the entire page, not just the text, hold down the Ctrl key and use the plus (+) and minus (-) keys, or scroll the mouse wheel if you have one.  For Macintosh users, use the Cmd key and '+' or '-' to quickly change the font size.

Colours

Many visually impaired people find reading easier when the text and background colours are anhanced.  The Optelec website supports three colour schemes: black-on-white, white-on-black, and yellow-on-blue.  Simply choose a preferred combination that works best for you and all pages on the Optelec website will be displayed in the colour scheme you have chosen until you decide otherwise.

Access Keys

Browsers who find it difficult to see the screen find it valuable to have shortcuts for jumping to important links and there are designated access keys that provide those shortcuts.

To use these access keys, hold down the ALT key and press the appropriate access key.  In Firefox, this will "click" the link; in Internet Explorer and most other browsers, it will highlight the link, which you can then "click" by pressing the Enter key.

The Optelec website supports the following access keys.  In most cases, holding down the ALT key and pressing a number highlights a link; pressing Enter then selects the link and takes you to the destination:

Internet Explorer:

• ALT+1 <enter> - Home page
• ALT+2 <enter> - Skip to main content
• ALT+3 <enter> - Skip to sub-menu
• ALT+4 - Search (no <enter>, and you can then type straight into the Search box)
• ALT+0 <enter> - Skip to Footer Navigation

FireFox:

• SHIFT+ALT+1 - Home page
• SHIFT+ALT+2 - Skip to main content
• SHIFT+ALT+3 - Skip to sub-menu
• SHIFT+ALT+4 - Search (you can then type straight into the Search box)
• SHIFT+ALT+0 - Skip to Footer Navigation

Web Site Page Structure

The Optelec website is designed with consistency in mind.  Once you have found your way around a single page, you should find that most other pages can be accessed in a similar fashion.  Points of consistency include:

• All Optelec website pages have a main menu at the top of the document and choosing one of the links from this will take you into that area of the website.
• The main content of a page usually starts at the first or second heading on a page, and can be reached quickly either by jumping by heading, choosing from a list of headings in a screen reader, or by using the "skip to main content" link at the top of the page (ALT+2 access key).
• The title of each page can be read by most screen readers, describes the page, helping you know where in the website you are.
• Many links have titles, which give longer descriptions of where they lead.  You can access these by telling your screen reader to use these, or you can move the mouse over the link and the longer descriptions will appear in a pop-up window which disappears when you move the mouse away.
• All photographs and pictures of relevance have been given an appropriate alternative text description.  Your screen reader can read these out, and moving the mouse over the picture can pop-up this description. Unimportant images have an empty text description so that your screen reader will not read these out to you.

Feedback

If you have suggestions on how to improve the Optelec website, please contact Optelec