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Accessibility policy

With the turning of the century, universal accessibility to the contents on the Web is a question that is becoming more and more important in information technologies. When one speaks of accessibility these days, we are not speaking exclusively of blind or handicapped communities which use the Internet on a daily basis. We are also speaking of aging communities that have different needs, of an outdated computer population which requires special attention, or even, lost users that could use a little help to find themselves in this vast sea of information.

SPHERE-Quebec is sensitive to the thorny question of accessibility to what is found on the Web. More than a moral concern, accessibility is an incontrovertible technological and political issue at the heart of current debates in society. To facilitate general use of our site by all of our users and to contribute to the reduction of the digital divide, we have put in place very simple functionalities whose goal it is to make visiting our site more enjoyable and better adapted to our visitors' needs.

Hotkeys

All Internet users do not have the possibility to adequately browse with a mouse. To counter this problem, our site is entirely accessible by keyboard. With Windows, you can use the ALT key+ an access key; with Macintosh, the CTRL key+ an access key. Therefore, to access the Home page without a mouse, a Windows user will have to press ALT and 1, followed by the ENTER key. You can refer to the following table of keys to view the site in a new light:

• Access key 1= Return to Home page
• Access key 3= Site Map
• Access key 4= Search engine
• Access key 9= Contact
• Access key 0= Accessibility

Adjustments to the size of the text

Also, it is not always easy to read the texts found on the Internet. As the fonts tend to be small for certain users, SPHERE-Quebec have started a font size personalization system to allow users to regulate the font according to their preferences or needs. The menu options allow users to adjust their font presentation 75% to 125% of their base size to facilitate reading. Moreover, to save those preferences in the memory for future visits, an innocuous cookie is placed in the user's computer. It is then unnecessary to adjust the font size at every visit: you configure your display on your first visit, and you never have to worry about it again.

Respect of the WAI standards

One of the objectives of SPHERE-Quebec, with the creation of this site, is to comply with the standards of the Web Accessibility Initiative, particularly with the priorities of level 1 and 2, as well as certain elements of level priority 3, as proposed by AccessibilityWeb. This approach allows this site to be fully accessible to users with functional limitations, but also apt to respond to the adaptability needs of an aging population and internet users in general.

Respect of the Web Consortium standards

SPHERE-Quebec hopes to set up a web site at the cutting edge of technology, all the while remaining an impeccable model of accessibility for the whole of its users, independent of their physical condition or software configuration. That is why this site was constructed with the XHTML 1.0 transitional language for the structure of Web and CSS-2 documents for their page layout, two technologies standardized by the W3 Consortium that have numerous advantages:

• Smaller sized pages, therefore they download faster for a greater comfort of consultation
• Pages accessible to all types of browsers (graphic, textual, Braille space, vocal reader, etc.) and therefore all internet users, independent of their functional limitations
• Standardized technologies, the outcome of work carried out by the W3C Consortium, which all the recent browsers comply with, on all the existing platforms
• The portability of information towards new types of web access, such as cellular phones and other portable mobiles, like personal digital assistants (PDA)
• The durability of content and an assurance to finally capitalize on the efforts to develop a perspective of reusability

The content takes precedent on the presentation

The degradation of the presentation of these pages in certain Web browsers does not contradict the very real concern of interoperability: the content of the site is perfectly readable with browsers that do not support CSS 2 style pages, as it is perfectly accessible in a screen reader or PDA. The presentation of this content, strictly separated from the last thanks to CSS, cannot be fully restored by the outdated browsers from the 90s, like Netscape 4, or even Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.5.

An indispensable reciprocity

After 10 years of chaotic development which led to the deadlock of 90s style programming, the Web is starting a new more rational step of development. The various modern browsers offer a satisfactory support of the CSS presentation technique. This site presents itself without fault, thanks to a consented effort to adopt and to respect the XHTML and CSS standards. This rule of development also allows accessibility to the site by a voice synthesizer or a Braille space used by handicapped persons. It gives the content of this site a perfect print quality from modern browsers. It all but assures the durability of these pages in future web medias.

To benefit from the advantages of the modern Web, a reciprocal effort is critical from the user: abandon your old Netscape 4.x or your old Internet Explorer 4.x for their modern versions, or for one of their equivalent browsers. There exists one for all tastes and all configurations. You will benefit, on current and old web sites alike, from the added comfort and the ease of Web browsing.

The recommended browsers

For the good of its users, SPHERE-Quebec recommends the best in terms of Web browsing and invites you to update your browser, if needed, not only to better enjoy your experience on SPHERE-Quebec site, but also to fully appreciate all the possibilities of today's Web. Regarding web technologies used for this site, we recommend the use of a recent browser like:

• Mozilla, Mozilla Firebird or Mozilla FireFox (all platforms);
• Netscape 7 (all platforms);
• Opera 8 (all platforms);
• Safari (Mac OS X);
• And many more.

It is however possible to visit this site with an older browser, like Internet Explorer (all joined versions, including 4, 5, 6) or Netscape 4 and less. The content of this entire site is in all cases fully accessible, readable, and available for consultation with these versions, but the visual presentation will be partially degraded due to the fact that they more or less conform to current standards.