BrowseAloud helps compliance with legal obligations:

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

Texthelp Systems is dedicated to developing software products that are usable for everyone including those with physical challenges and disabilities. BrowseAloud was designed to adhere to the Section 508 accessibility standards.

The following document describes the accessibility features that address the Section 508 Standards. This VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is an informational tool developed by industry and government to help facilitate the understanding of compatibility issues under Section 508.

BrowseAloud VPAT Accessibility PDF

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requires the provision of appropriate educational services; services that are designed to meet the individual needs of qualified students to the same extent that the needs of students without a disability are met.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act dictates that 'reasonable accommodation' is made regardless of disability.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities by ensuring that everyone receives a free appropriate public education (FAPE), regardless of ability. It strives not only to grant equal access to students with disabilities, but also to provide additional special education services and procedural safeguards.

This website aims to conform to:

• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines
• XHTML 1.0
• CSS 2.0

Some Priority 3 guidelines are no longer relevant and are being dropped from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.0. The following guidelines have therefore not been adhered to on this website:

• 9.5 - Provide keyboard shortcuts to important links (including those in client-side image maps), form controls, and groups of form controls.
• 10.4 - Until user agents handle empty controls correctly, include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas.

If you do come across any accessibility issues, please contact us.

Accessibility features

• For those screen reader and non-mouse users, you have the option to skip straight to the content.
• The site has been created with a combination of XHTML and CSS. Tables have not been used at all throughout the site.
• All informational images contain an ALT tag and decorative images are either relegated to the CSS document or have a null ALT attribute.
• All pages have valid HTML.
• Links have been written to make sense out of context. Where this has proved impossible the title tag has been used to expand on their meaning.
• The website offers full functionality in all modern browsers on both PC and Mac.

Resizing the text

To increase the text size:

• Select one of the 'A' text size options on every page
• Internet Explorer: View > Text size > Largest
• Firefox: View > Text size > Increase
• Opera: File > Preferences > Fonts > Minimum font size (pixels)

Alternatively, scroll with the wheel of your mouse whilst holding down the control key.