The Michael House Website
Terms of Use
By using this web site, you agree to these terms. Please read them as they pertain to your rights and privacy.
Statement of Accessibility
This web site has been designed and developed with consideration to those with limited connection speed and who are using assistive devices.
Style and Appearance
All placement and visual elements are controlled by a central Cascading Style Sheet (CSS). Additionally, our pages also utilize a print style sheet so that the information contained on our site transfers to your desktop printer properly and with only the information needed on the printed page.
Select pages may also include aural or braille assistive commands.
Menus and Links
The first link element on all pages is used to skip the browser to the menu and the second to the content. These are useful for those guests who access this site in a non visual or surf with alternative and assistive devices.
All links have title attributes which describe the link to those using assistive or alternate technologies. This description helps keep the link in context if it occurs out of order on the page.
We have also deployed tab indexes for mouseless navigation so that links follow in proper sequence.
Top-level menu items also have access key elements defined that function as keyboard shortcuts. How these are activated or whether they are supported is a function of your browser software. (FireFox utilizes ALT and the letter) Where access keys are used, the title text reveals the sequence to use.
Images
Images include ALTernate text that are inline in any document. Those images that are deemed decorative only are called by the screen style sheet only or contain null value attributes.
Where images or graphs are used, "long text" descriptions are used either inline or from the long text page. These images are marked with the descriptive "D" link.
Cognitive Support
This site is written as simply as possible for the material presented to equalize access for individuals with learning disabilities.
We have included phonetic support and acronym tags where short-forms are encountered for the first time in a document.
Forms & Input
Forms are fully accessible with proper labels and tab orders to minimize complexities while completing form blanks for those not using the site visually.
Underlying Code
This site is created with standards-compliant XHTML 1.1 and XML. The minimum fall-back level for documents on this site is XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
This site meets or exceeds the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Level AA (Double-A) as well as US Section 508 as defined by the Disabilities Act. Our sites are tested with both US and Canadian accessibility validators.