Accessibility

Emergency Management Victoria is committed to ensuring that people with disabilities can access this site and its information.

This website is currently working on meeting Level AA success criteria of W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. We will be taking a staged approach to ensure accessibility compliance across all our websites. 

We are always interested in knowing about your experience of the accessibility of the Emergency Management Victoria site.

General Web Accessibility Information

There are many tools that people with a disability can use to assist to access the Internet. These tools are either hardware or software.

Hardware

These tools manipulate the keyboard or mouse, because the person with a disability cannot use them. Examples are:

• Refreshable Braille displays (External link) – A small Braille display that a blind person can use to read the screen line by line.
• Joysticks (External link) / Trackballs (External link) – Pointers that manipulate the mouse onscreen for people with motor disabilities.
• Alternative keyboards – Keyboards that have limited keys for people with motor disabilities. These include keyboards manipulated by fingers (External link) and keyboards manipulated using a head-wand (External link).

Software

These tools change how a user interacts with the site. Examples are:

• Screen readers – Programs such as JAWS (External link) and Window-Eyes (External link) that convert a web site into a Braille display or read it in audio for people who are blind, visually impaired or have dyslexia.
• Screen Magnifiers – Programs that magnify sections of the screen for people with vision impairments. See Windows Screen Magnifier (External link).
• Oversized cursors – Large cursors for people with vision impairments. See “Biggy” cursors (External link).
• Onscreen keyboards – Keyboards for people with motor disabilities used in combination with switching devices. See On-screen keyboard (External link).
• Programs that slow down applications for people with motor disabilities, for example CPU Killer (for Windows) (External link).

General Browser shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts provided below apply to Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox.

The following keyboard shortcut forms are used throughout the lists below: Ctrl=Control; Esc=Escape; Alt=Alternative; Del=Delete; UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT=Arrow keys.

Where available, the key combinations for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems have been provided.

Shortcuts for Internet Explorer

Details of shortcuts for various versions of Internet Explorer can be obtained from the Microsoft website (External link).

Shortcuts for Opera

Source: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/keyboard (External link)

This website works best in the following browsers:

Click here to update your version of Internet Explorer (External link)

Click here to update your version of Safari (External link)

Click here to update your version of Mozilla Firefox (External link)

NOTE:

The display of this website in iE6 is not the intended format for delivery. Although we have aimed to make this site as cross browser compliant as possible, some users on iE6 with low screen resolutions may not have access to some of the usability functions and optimal online features like RSS subscriptions and dynamic navigation components.

For Support in Internet explorer 6.0, see Microsoft iE6 Home (External link).

The homepage offers users these options and information specifically for ie6

Web Browsing Basics (External link) Explore some of the Internet Explorer 6 features—such as Search, Favorites, and History—that can help you get started browsing the Web.

Customizing Your Browser (External link) Learn how to customize your Web browsing layout and other features so you can browse the Web the way you want.

Security and Privacy (External link) Read easy-to-follow, practical articles that explain how Internet Explorer 6 can help make your online experience more private and secure.

E-mail and Newsgroup Reader (External link) Learn how to use Outlook Express to stay in touch with friends and family, and share information with other users like you in newsgroups.

Developing (External link) Developers: Get links to the documentation on the features, controls, and support that give Internet Explorer 6 a powerful programming model.

Accessibility Tutorials (External link) Customize Internet Explorer 6 to meet your needs—increase accessibility by adjusting font size, changing toolbar settings, and more.

Acknowledgements

The information above has been sourced from:

• Multi Media Victoria
• the websites of the various commercial browsers.