DEREK MOLONEY HELP PAGE

HELP & ACCESSIBILITY

Introduction

We've tried to make this website as user friendly and accessible as possible. If you experience any problems or notice something that could be improved, please email access@scratchwebdesign.com

This website does not rely on the use of a mouse to navigate and is designed to be operable using a keyboard, switching device, joystick or gesture-recognition device. A logical tab order is used to step through the links on each page using TAB to move down and Shift TAB to move back up through the links.

Where appropriate we have also provided 'skip-links'. These links are invisible to sighted users unless accessed using the TAB key. Keyboard, screen reader and braille users can use these 'skip-links' to skip past repetitive content such as site navigation links at the start of a page. Pressing the TAB key will access the first 'skip-link' on the page; pressing ENTER key will then 'skip' to the content described in the link text.

Home Page•Help Menu

We've tried to make text links as descriptive as possible, or they are written so as to make contextual sense. However, where additional information about a link might be useful, we've used 'title' attributes to describe the link in greater detail. This additional information is visible when the mouse cursor is held over the link or the link receives focus from an input device such as a keyboard. Users of assistive technology may also set screen reader options to take advantage of this feature.

For users using text-only browsers, or visual browsers with images disabled, all non-decorative images used in this website include a descriptive 'alt' attribute to provide a short text equivalent for the image. More complex images requiring a more detailed description or text alternative have a 'longdesc' attribute, and for browsers or assitive technologies that don't support 'longdesc' a 'D-Link' is provided. The 'D-Link' is identified by [D] and is located directly after the image in the document flow. The 'D-Link' links to a page providing additional descriptive information about associated image. Any images that are decorative and are not critical to site content have a null 'alt' attribute and should not add to screen reader "noise pollution".

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Resize Text

If you have difficulty reading text because it's too small you can increase the default text size for your browser. In most modern browsers, simply holding down the CTRL key and pressing the + (PLUS sign) key will increase the default text size or magnify the page. Pressing the + (PLUS sign) key again will further increase the text size. For non-keyboard users and for more browser specific instructions, please select your browser from the following list:

Firefox 2

  1. To increase text hold down CTRL key and press the + (PLUS sign) key
  2. To decrease text hold down CTRL key and press the - (MINUS sign) key
  3. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Text then selct Increase or Decrease.

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Firefox 3

  1. To zoom the current page hold down the CTRL key and press the + (PLUS sign) key to zoom in (increase) or the - (MINUS sign) key to zoom out (decrease). To reset the page to default size hold down the CTRL key and press 0
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select Zoom and choose from select Zoom In, Zoom Out or Reset.

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Internet Explorer

  1. For Internet Explorer 6: click View then Text and selct required text size
  2. For Internet Explorer 7: From the menu bar underneath the search field, select Page and point to Text size

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Safari (Windows)

  1. To increase text hold down CTRL key and press the + (PLUS sign) key
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Bigger
  3. To decrease text hold down CTRL key and press the - (MINUS sign) key
  4. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Smaller

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Safari (Mac)

  1. To increase text hold down Command key and press the + (PLUS sign) key
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Bigger
  3. To decrease text hold down Command key and press the - (MINUS sign) key
  4. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select View, select Make Text Smaller

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Opera

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select View then Zoom and select required zoom level.

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Enabling JavaScript

This website uses JavaScript.Specifically, the custom scroll bars, photo gallery and music player use JavaScript. Scrollable content and photos are accessible without JavaScript. However, to use the music player cannot be used without JavaScript enabled and Flash installed. To better experience this and other websites we do recommend that JavaScript is enabled. For information about how to enable JavaScript, please select your browser from the following options:

Firefox

  1. Keyboard shortcut ALT T O N ENTER
  2. Or using a mouse: from the main menu select Tools then Options.
  3. Select Content tab from the top row of options.
  4. Tick Enable JavaScript box.
  5. Note: You may wish to install the NoScript extension for Firefox to control which sites can run JavaScript.

Home Page•Help Menu

Internet Explorer

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select Tools then Options.
  2. Change to the Security tab at the top of the Internet Options window that pops up.
  3. From the list of Zones at the top of the Security options select the Internet icon.
  4. Select the button near the bottom that reads Custom Level.
  5. In the new window that pops up, scroll down to the item that reads Active Scripting.
  6. Select the option marked Enable.

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Safari

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select Edit then Preferences.
  2. Select Security tab from the top row of options.
  3. Tick Enable JavaScript box.

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Opera

  1. Using mouse or keyboard: from the main menu select Tools then Preferences.
  2. Select Advanced tab from the top row of options.
  3. Select Content from the left column of options.
  4. Tick Enable JavaScript box.

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Updating Flash

The music player on this website requires Flash Player 8 or better and if you don't have an up-to-date Flash player installed you will not be able to listen to music content. If you wish to install or update Flash, you can download an update from Adobe's Flash download page.

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Standards Compliance

This website was designed to meet standards and recommendations developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is tested for cross-platform cross-browser compatibility and accessibility. If you're technically inclined, you can read on below for more detailed information, or you can visit the W3C website to find out why standards are important. But you might prefer to just skip the technical stuff and return to our website's hompage.

W3C Recommendations

This website complies with W3C recommendations HTML 4.01 strict and CSS 2.1/CSS 3.

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) Conformance


Current Status

We are continually working to improve this website and to to further improve conformance to WCAG 1.0. Our goal is to make this website as accessible as possible to as many people as possible and to ensure a better experience for all users, including those with visual impairments or other disabilities. WCAG 1.0 is also the basis for the Irish National Disability Authority Guidelines for Web Accessibility. The current level of conformance is outlined below, with exceptions and notes at the end of this statement.

This website conforms to W3C WCAG 1.0 Conformance Level Double-A (with WCAG 1.0 Samurai errata). The baseline for this claim is HTML 4.01 and the specification that this content relies upon is HTML 4.01 (strict).

This website also uses, but is not dependant upon the following specifications and technologies: CSS Level 2 Revision 1, CSS Level 3 (Working Draft), JavaScript, Flash, GIF and JPEG. Unless otherwise noted, all content is still accessible if CSS ( Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript are disabled, and text alternatives to images are provided for browsers that do not support or have image display disabled.

This website was tested for cross platform and and cross browser compatability and accessibility using the following user agents and assistive technologies: Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 (Windows, Mac), IE6, IE7, IE8, Opera 9 (Windows), Safari 3.1 (Windows, Mac), Google Chrome (Windows), JAWS 9 and IBM alphaWorks aDesigner 2.0.

Exceptions and Notes
  1. This website uses a Flash music player and music will not play without an up-to-date Flash player and JavaScript enabled.
  2. Music starts automatically when the Homepage loads. A link is provided at the start of the Homepage to allow screen reader users to load an alternate version of the Hompepage containing the same content but with music player autostart disabled so that screen readers can be heard. This link is not visible to sighted users using visual browsers but may be accessed using keyboard or equivalent TAB navigation.
  3. This page 'help.php' does not comply with WCAG Rule: 13.1.P2 - 'All Anchor elements are required not to use the same link text to refer to different resources'. The same link text (in this case the browser name) is used in different sections of this page to provide skip-links to relevent help information for that browser within that section. This should not present an accessibility issue.

If you have any useability or accessibility problems with this website please let us know by emailing access@scratchwebdesign.com - comments or suggestions are always welcome. Please reference "Derek Moloney Website" in the subject line of your email.

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Privacy Statement

We respect your privacy and will keep your information confidential. We have provided this Privacy Statement to describe what information is collected when you use our online Contact Form or visit our website.

When you use our online Contact Form we collect two types of information:

Personal Data

This is data that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you and includes your name, email address and IP address (where the IP address has not been anonymised). This information is only collected from you when you voluntarily submit it to us. We ask for your email email address so that we can reply to your message and as a security measure to prevent misuse of our email system. When you submit a message using our Contact Form your IP address is attached to that message. This IP address can be used to identify you and is included for security purposes. We will not sell, share or exchange your email address or any other information submitted or collected with our online Contact Form.

Non-Personal Data

For security, and to help address any technical issues that may arise, we also collect Non-Personal Data. This is information that cannot be used to identify you personally. When you submit a message using our online Contact Form the following Non-Personal Data is collected: a Time Stamp indicating when your message was submitted; the User Agent (your web browser) and Operating System; and your ISP (Internet Service Provider). This information is only collected when you submit a message using our online Contact Form and is attached to that message. We do not share or sell this information and we do not retain it except with the message with which it is collected.

Like most websites, we also gather statistical and other analytical information collected on an aggregate basis of all visitors to our website. This information cannot be used to identify or contact you, for example, user IP addresses where they have been anonymised, browser types and other anonymous statistical data involving the use of our website. We do not share or sell this information.

If you have any questions or concerns about privacy please email:
privacy@scratchwebdesign.com