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Accessibility

Introduction

Our aim is to ensure that History Study Centre is accessible to everyone. If you have any questions or suggestions about the accessibility of this site, please submit those to us via the "Contact us" link in the page footer.

You will find information below on how to navigate History Study Centre, what you can do to view the site in a more accessible way, and any features which may have implications for accessibility. You will also find a brief statement of our policy towards complying with accessibility standards for the Web.

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Navigating History Study Centre

Sitewide Navigation Features

At the top of every page in History Study Centre there is a list of links to the main functional areas of the site and context-sensitive Help, which opens in a new window. You can use the Quick Search box, located at the top of every page, to quickly search all of the content in History Study Centre.

In addition, navigation options relevant to a particular page appear at the start of the content area, immediately following the main page heading e.g. Modify Search link on the Results page.

At the foot of every page you will find a list of links to sitewide information, including the Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Accessibility, and Site Map pages, and an End Session link.

If you use a screen reader or keyboard to access History Study Centre you can bypass the sitewide navigation links using the “skip over navigation” link at the top of each page or the relevant access key (see Using Access Keys section below). This link is usually hidden from view but can be displayed on screen using the TAB key.

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Site Map

The Site Map provides a list of links to all the main areas and sub-areas of the site. To open the Site Map from any page click on the link in the bottom navigation bar (access key 3), then follow the link for the page you wish to open.

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Using Access Keys

You can use access keys as part of keystroke combinations (keyboard shortcuts) to navigate quickly to important features in this site without using a mouse:

  • 0 = Accessibility page
  • 1 = Home page
  • 2 = Skip navigation
  • 3 = Site map
  • 4 = Quick search box on the current page page
  • 6 = Help (opens in a new window)

To use the access keys:

  • Hold down the ALT key and press the assigned access key.
  • Press Enter to follow the link (Internet Explorer only).
    Note: Internet Explorer users do not need to press Enter to move the cursor/focus to the Quick search box on the current page.

The page you have chosen should now open.

Note: If you are using a Mac you should hold down the CTRL key and press the assigned access key. If you are using Firefox 2, you should hold down the SHIFT and ALT key before pressing the assigned access key.

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Using the Tab Key

You can use the TAB key to navigate through the main features of the page such as links and form fields:

  • Press the TAB key to move forward to the next feature
  • or press SHIFT and the TAB key to move back to the previous feature.

Note: Unless you change the default settings in Safari, you will need to press Option and the TAB key to move through each link on the page.

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Pop-ups in History Study Centre

This site makes use of pop-ups to provide some types of content. For example, the help opens in a pop-up so you can easily switch between reading the help and looking at the site. Pop-ups are not used for advertising on this site, they only include site content.

If you have a browser pop-up blocker activated you will need to disable it for full access to the content in History Study Centre. Alternatively, most pop-up blockers can be configured to allow pop-ups for sites you select whilst still blocking pop-ups from other sites. Please refer to your browser help for details on how to disable your pop-up blocker or allow pop-ups for this site.

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Visual Display

Changing Text Size

Text throughout the site (including navigation) can be made bigger or smaller within the browser to suit your needs.
In Firefox:

  • open the View menu and choose from the options under Text Size
  • or use CTRL and + to increase the size and CTRL and - to decrease the size.

In Internet Explorer:

  • open the View menu and choose from the options under Text Size.

Note: If you use a Mac you should hold down the Apple/Command key and press the + or - key.

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Changing Text, Background, and Link Colours

Most browsers have options allowing you to choose the text and background colours you prefer when viewing Web pages. You can use these options to make the text more legible if you find certain colour combinations difficult to read.

To change colours in Internet Explorer:

  • Open the Tools menu
  • Choose Internet Options
  • Click the Accessibility button
  • Select the ‘Ignore colors specified on web page’ checkbox and click OK
  • Click the Colors button on the Internet Options dialog box
  • Deselect the ‘Use Windows Colors’ checkbox
  • Select your colour preferences and click OK.

To change colours in Firefox:

  • Open the Tools menu
  • Choose Options
  • Click the Colours button from the Content tab
  • Deselect the ‘Use system colours’ checkbox
  • Select your colour preferences
  • Deselect the ‘Allow pages to choose their own colours’ checkbox and click OK.

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Features with Implications for Accessibility

JavaScript

All content within History Study Centre can be accessed with JavaScript disabled. However, it is advisable to browse the site with JavaScript enabled to make full use of all the available features e.g. Marked List and My Archive.

Animated or Interactive Content

This site contains some animated or interactive content for which you need the Flash player plug-in (refer to the relevant section on the Software Requirements page).

Video

This site includes video clips for which you need either the QuickTime Player® or the Windows Media® Player plug-in (refer to the relevant section on the Software Requirements page). Each video clip page includes a short description of the relevant clip but captioning and full transcripts are not available.

PDFs and Page Images

This site includes scanned page images in PDF/gif/jpeg formats, which cannot be read by a screen reader. You will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer in order to view page images in PDF format (refer to the relevant section on the Software Requirements page).

Inline Graphics

Graphics are used within full text pages for items which cannot be represented as plain text e.g. photographs, illustrations, tables and charts. A short caption normally appears in the text beside these items. Each item links to an enlarged version on a new page.

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Standards Compliance Policy

At present we are making every effort to comply with Priority 1 of World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and some features also contribute towards compliance with Priority 2 and Priority 3 guidelines.

We are also striving to ensure that this site complies with the U.S Federal Government Section 508 guidelines for Web-based information.

Colours used throughout the interface have been tested against the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) and Hewlett Packard's standards for luminosity contrast, color difference and brightness difference.

This Web site has been tested for total (monochromatic) colour vision deficiency and partial colour vision (Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia).

Where appropriate, we have tried to ensure that the access keys assigned to this site are consistent with authoritative sources on the Web (e.g. “UK Government accesskeys standard” in Illustrated Handbook for Web Management Teams) and other ProQuest CSA products.

We aim to test all our products for accessibility using JAWS with Internet Explorer.

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More Information

The BBC’s My Web My Way site is an authoritative resource on accessibility for users around the world, not just in the UK. It gives detailed help on making changes to your browser, operating system, or computer to view Web sites in a more accessible way.

Note: ProQuest is not responsible for the accuracy of the information contained on the BBC’s My Web My Way site.

Should you need further details on the steps we have taken to ensure that this site is accessible to all users, please submit your query via the "Contact us" link in the page footer.

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