Web accessibility statement

Blue Care Network of Michigan developed this site to ensure its content is available to the widest possible audience, including readers using assistive technology or accessibility features. By adhering to guidelines for accessible Web design, we acknowledge the diversity of communication methods, available technologies and the abilities of Web users.

BCN strives to maintain conformance to W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The public pages on this site meet the criteria for AAA (Triple A) compliance with WCAG guidelines.

Standards Compliance

MiBCN.com has been validated for compliance with W3C CSS (cascading style sheets) and XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!

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; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key. The following access keys are recognized on MiBCN.com:

Navigation aids

  1. All pages have rel=home, search, glossary and index links to aid navigation in text-only browsers and screen readers. 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). Opera 7 has similar functionality.
  2. The home page and all subsequent pages include a search box (access key 4).
  3. The tab order for all pages is consistent and designed to be ordered for usablity.

Links

  1. In all cases, if the text of a link does not fully describe the target, the link contains a title which describes the link in greater detail.
  2. A link containing the words "Web site" will open a new browser window and link the user to an external Web site.
  3. Whenever possible, links have been written to clearly articulate the target when taken out of context. Many browsers (such as JAWS, Home Page Reader, Lynx, and Opera) can extract the links contained on a page and allow the user to browse the list separately from the context of the page.
  4. Link text is never duplicated (i.e. two or more links with the same text will always point to the same target.

Images

  1. All content images include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.
  2. Images that convey meaning have a [D] link that will display a text description of the image and/or its meaning.

Visual design

  1. MiBCN.com uses cascading style sheets for visual layout.
  2. A text size option has been included.
  3. Internet Explorer has a limited text resizing feature ("View" menu, "Text Size"), but it only works with relative font sizes. A special stylesheet that uses relative font sizes is automatically served to visitors using Internet Explorer.
  4. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.

Acronyms

  1. Acronyms used throughout the site are marked by a dotted underline and have a title describing their definition.

Additional Accessibility references

  1. W3 accessibility guidelines. Explains the reasoning for each guideline.
  2. W3 accessibility techniques. Explains how to implement each guideline.
  3. W3 accessibility checklist. A developer's guide to accessibility.

page modified 04/26/2008