Site help & accessibility information
The information below is provided to help you understand the best way to view and use Access Noosa's web site, including details of shortcut keys and other web accessibility features.
Page layout
The page is formatted using cascading style sheets (CSS) and valid structural markup. It can be viewed with style sheets turned off or by overriding the author's style sheet with your own 'user style sheet'.
The page has the following features, that are consistent across the web site:
- Header: includes name of site guide
- Skip Navigation Link: this link is only visible to people using screen readers or text based browsers and provides an option for jumping quickly to the start of the page content
- Global Navigation: these links provide the main level navigation for the site (found in left column) - server side scripting has been used to remove any links to the page being viewed (ie links that would reload the same page)
- Information links: these are universal links to local information (such as 'About Noosa' and 'Climate') as well as a link back to the HOME page
- Page Content: this is the central information area and includes a photo/icon depicting page content
- Footer: appears at the end of the content section and includes developer link, a link to the top of the same page (for longer pages or when magnification is being used), as well as links to site utilities, such as site map and site help
Site Map
There is a link to the site map from the footer of every page. The site map provides an overview of the site content and is useful if you are not sure where to look for specific information. It is marked up as a nested list, to show the site structure/hierarchy and relationship between pages.
Access keys
To make navigation quicker and easier, the following shortcut keys can be used:
- Shortcut key to skip main navigation is 0
- Shortcut key for Home is 1
- Shortcut key for Contact is 2
- Shortcut key for Site Help is 4
- Shortcut key to return to the top of the page is 9
Example: ALT + 1 then ENTER (Windows) or Control + 1 (Mac) takes you to the Access Noosa Home Page.
NOTE: Access keys are a W3C recommendation and are not yet supported by all browsers. These shortcuts have been coded for frequently used links and relate to the Access Noosa web site only.
Tab index
The tabbing order has been coded to facilitate logical progression around the page. However this may not be implemented correctly on all browsers. The order is:
- Skip Navigation link (jumps to start of page content)
- Section Navigation links (if relevant)
- Page content links
- Footer links
- Main Site Navigation links
Browser preferences
The Access Noosa site conforms to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It is coded in relative rather than absolute units and includes other features that allow individual users to implement their own preferences via the accessibility options available in their browser. These can be found under 'Tools' - 'Internet Options' in Microsoft's Internet Explorer or under 'Edit' - 'Preferences' in Netscape Navigator. If these functions are not available on your computer, you may want to update your browser.