Web Site Access

Accessibility

All pages are written to conform to the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and U.S. Sect. 508 accessibility standards. This provides for access by persons using non-visual browsers and other assistive devices. All pages are checked for accessibility with accessibility validators.

In addition to programming for full accessibility, cross-platform compatibility has also been addressed, and every effort is made to insure that all pages will read equally well (although not necessarily identically) on all browsers (and on other platforms as well, such as web-enabled hand-held devices: Palms, Blackberrys, etc.).

Some provisions are made for backward compatibility, but browsers from before the turn of the millennium should by now be considered pretty-much obsolete. Non CSS Level 2-compatible browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer prior to five) are generally going to degrade in increasingly unpredictable manners. (Oh yes, and telephones with the little hand-cranks on the side are obsolete now, too.)

Key Accessibility Links

World Wide Web Consortium
- Web Accessibility Initiative
- Cascading Style Sheets Level 2.1
U.S. Section 508
- Section 508 Standards
New York State Office for Technology
- N.Y. State Accessibility Standards
Accessibility Validators
- Watchfire "Webxact"
- HiSoftware "Cynthia Says"

File Access

Files on this web site are in a variety of formats. Most of the web site is html, the standard language of the web, and may be viewed in any browser. Other formats are as follows:

Portable Document Format (pdf)

Some files, which are based on a printed page, are in pdf format. These files require a "plug-in" for the browser to read, the Adobe Reader. The reader is free, works with nearly every available browser, and may be downloaded from Adobe.

Adobe
- Adobe Reader
- In rare cases, the Reader is not supported on a platform: if that is your case, and if the file were not available in an alternative format (as all are on this site), you may convert a pdf file to an html file:
  Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents

Documents (doc) and Spreadsheets (xls)

Some files that are based on a printed page are also available in doc format, and would be read by any word processor capable of reading this format (e.g., Microsoft Word, Open Office Writer).

Some files, which are based on data presentation, are in xls format, and would be read by any spreadsheet file (e.g., Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc).

Many browsers will open these files automatically, but some configurations will require you to save the file and open it separately (there will generally be a setting in the browser options menu to set how to handle files that do not have an .html extension).

Finally, some files are txt documents, which are simple files with no formatting and that should open automatically into the browser.

Screen Resolution

While all pages will scroll vertically (you've had to do that already to get this far), the pages are designed so as not to require horizontal scrollong with screen resolutions of 800 by 600 or greater. The page itself, with the side menu, is 760 pixels, which leaves room for the vertical scroll bar in an 800 pixel screen.