Resources >
Technical Specifications >
Accessibility (Section 508)
Accessibility Statement
(Americans with Disabilities Act Section 508)
QualityTools, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has been designed specifically with
accessibility in mind. All pages are checked with Bobby, the Web page analysis tool, to ensure
compliance with both the W3C accessibility guidelines and the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Section 508 requirements.
Access keys
Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined
on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an
access key (Internet Explorer only brings focus to the link. You must hit Enter to
activate the link); on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.
The access keys for the QualityTools site are defined to follow the
recommended access keys standard as implemented by UK Government Websites.
- Access key S
- Skip Navigation
- Access key 1
- Home Page
- Access key 2
- What's New
- Access key 3
- Site Map
- Access key 4
- Search Box
- Access key 5
- FAQ
- Access key 6
- Help
- Access key 7
- Complaints Procedure (Contact)
- Access key 8
- Privacy Policy
- Access key 9
- Feedback
- Access key 0
- Accessibility Statement
Navigation aids
- All pages have additional links to aid navigation in text-only browsers and screen readers.
Netscape 6 and Mozilla users can also take advantage of this feature by selecting the View menu,
Show/Hide, Site Navigation Bar, Show Only As Needed (or Show Always).
- All tables are coded to meet all Priority 1 WAI checkpoints. These tables properly associate the
data with its header and provide additional accessibility features, such as, summary and caption
attributes.
- The QualityTools Web site includes a search box (access key 4).
Links
- Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater
detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes thetarget.
- Whenever possible, links are written to make sense out of context.
Many browsers (such as JAWS, Home Page Reader, Lynx, and Opera) can
extract the list of links on a page and allow the user to browse
the list separately from the page.
- Link text is never duplicated; two links with the same link text
always point to the same address.
- There are no "
javascript:
" pseudo-links.
All links can be followed in any browser, even if scripting isturned off.
- There are no links that open new Pop-Up windows without warning.
Images
- All content images used in the home page and all archives include
descriptive ALT attributes.
Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.
- Complex images include LONGDESC attributes and links to
text-only descriptions to explain each image to non-visual readers.
Visual design
This site and all its archives use cascading style sheets for visual layout.
- The default stylesheet uses only relative font sizes, compatible
with the user-specified "text size" option in visual
browsers. For example, if you're using Internet Explorer, you
can make your default text size larger under the "View"
menu, "Text Size", "Larger" (or
"Largest").
- A print stylesheet is used to eliminate the need for an additional print page, or
a "text-only" version.
- If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at
all, the content of each page is still readable.
If you encounter any accessibility problems with any page on this site, contact us at
webmanager@qualitytools.ahrq.gov
with your comments and suggestions.