Complying with Disability Act

[Bonjour]

Hi

I can't find any previous questions, but apologies if I've missed them. I want to comply with the DDA Act as my site is aimed at housebound people and it would be an insult not to. I have Actinic V8 Smart theme and I have some bits working. How do I do the following:-

What code do I need and where do I put it - to allow visitors to adjust the text size of my site via their internet browser tool, as it doesn't work on my site.

Secondly, how do I allow them to change the background colour if that is possible in V8?

Many thanks.

[leehack]

You need to convert your font sizes into 'ems' instead of 'px' to allow resizing in IE.

As for background colours, you are probably best to search the net as there are loads of solutions already provided to do this for you. Javascript, dynamic css and a reload of the page is the main method i have seen to do this.

[bangers]

Lee's quite right (also remember to provide alt and titles to all images).

However now that ie and firefox allows you to increase the size of the page and it's contents is it such a problem anymore?

I'll be honest I normally resize using px so if this is a real no no I'll start moving to ems.

Bangers

[leehack]

However now that ie and firefox allows you to increase the size of the page and it's contents is it such a problem anymore?

I think ultimately that will be the answer on font sizing, because of what IE7 now offers. For the time being (at least a year i'd expect) then ems will be used because of 30% (ish) of people still using IE6.

[Bonjour]

Complying with Disability Act

Hi again

Thanks for reply and can you guess my next question? Go on then head in your hands... How do I change my font text to 'ems' as this is double dutch to me!

Sorry!

[bangers]

You need to change the css, if you haven't created one yourself then actinic has created one for you (design tab> Actinic Stylesheet). You will see reference to various font sizes just change any px value to em. Remebering that the size of ems are very differnt to px so 12em is very different to 12px.

I would suggest if you are not familar with style sheets to become so if you want to make these sort of changes otherwise you'll have no chance making these changes in the long term.

[leehack]

Do what bangers said for sure and i would also recommend searching the web for em font sizing information (there is little in here), that will present you with all you need to get started. And bear with it, it will go titsup first time you try cos of all sorts of inheritance issues, don't give up you will get there in the end.

[completerookie]

pop across to A-List-Apart and download the style switcher javascripts
then you can create two or more style sheets and switch between them. the JS code will also remember (using cookies) which style sheet you use and re-load them when you next visit the site.

this is a more advanced use of CSS-styles so you may want to start off by looking at styles first at somewhere like TIZAG
this gives you some basic grounding in CSS, but of course, you will still need to make changes to the actinic software to reflect the new found knowledge.

You also need to isolate "what" you want to allow the user to change, is it backgrounds, colours, font-size and so on.

[RuralWeb]

You can also set your text sizes in settings | site options | general

[peblaco]

If you are looking at DDA compliance you might want to have another layout other than the V8 Smart theme as it's based on tables and they aren't as accessible as CSS layouts.Hope this helps.

[los_design]

as it's based on tables and they aren't as accessible as CSS layouts.Hope this helps.

Disagree 100%

Tables ARE accessible as CSS layout, it all depends on your page structures hierachy and the declarations made within the controling classes.

However, I do agree, it is not for the beginner to tackle.

[RuralWeb]

As Los says tables are OK - the vast magority of sites on the web use them!

You should also beware of making your site too compliant - strange thing to say I know but I have built many 100% compliant site and the owners have ALWAYS had complaints about them. The reason being that most imared PC users have thier own methods of coping with "normal" websites - if you throw a compliant site at them then they get confused and many of thier systems dont work or produce the wrong results. Keyboard shortcuts are a classic one.

I would keep it simple and start with the text which IMO is easy to do and then get feedback from your users as to where to go next.

[Artisan]

When you get the css sorted, you might find this useful, although I've never tried it with Actinic.

Upload the file textsizer.js (get it from http://act3.artinet.co.uk/jscripts/textsizer.js) and add the following code to each <head> section (modifying the path to suit):

<script type="text/javascript" src="jscripts/textsizer.js">

Add this code(or similar) where you want the resizer to appear:

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><img src="images/eye.gif" alt="" height="10" width="18" border="0" /></td>
<td width="4"></td>
<td><strong>Font size:</strong></td>
<td width="6"></td>
<td><a href="javascript:ts('body',1)"><img src="images/text-plus.gif" alt="Larger text" height="11" width="11" border="0" /></a></td>
<td width="4"></td>
<td><a href="javascript:ts('body',1)">Larger</a></td>
<td width="6"></td>
<td><a href="javascript:ts('body',-1)"><img src="images/text-minus.gif" alt="Smaller text" height="11" width="11" border="0" /></a></td>
<td width="4"></td>
<td><a href="javascript:ts('body',-1)">Smaller</a></td>
</tr>
</table>

I used this on http://act3.artinet.co.uk/ (site still at the proofing stage) and tested it in IE7, Firefox and Safari.

Malcolm

[los_design]

Good post Malcolm and I can confirm that we had this on an Actinic site a while ago and it worked perfectly.

Regards

[peblaco]

Yes tables can be made accessible. To be fully compliant RNIB recommends "Opt for CSS layout and only use tables for design if CSS layout is impractical" due to problems tables can cause screen readers and other devices etc. I've seen an Actinc site be made fully compliant but I bet it took ages to do, mainly because of all the tables and forms to go through!.