Accessibility
World Football (Soccer) Book is dedicated to supporting all customers. You may experience some bugs when trying to access worldfootballbook.com using assistive devices. We're in the process of improving the site in this regard. In the meantime, please check this page for the latest information on how to best access our website.
Accessibility Standards
Accessibility standards help designers and developers of web content identify and address accessibility issues. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) represented the first major effort to establish guidelines for accessible design. This standard consists of 14 guidelines, each with three checkpoint levels for web developers to meet: Priority One, Priority Two, and Priority Three.
In individual countries, national standards emerged later. Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act is based on WCAG Priority One checkpoints. These same checkpoints serve as the basis for standards in Australia, France, Germany, and many other countries. The Common Look and Feel standard in Canada and Guidelines for U.K. Government Web Sites in the United Kingdom are based on Priorities One and Two of the WCAG.
Assistive Technologies
Users with disabilities frequently rely on hardware and software to access web content. These tools, known as assistive technologies, range from screen readers to touch screens and head pointers.
Blind users of the web frequently use software called a screen reader to read the contents of a web page out loud. Two common screen readers are JAWS from Freedom Scientific and Window-Eyes from GW Micro. Screen readers enable users to hear, rather than read, the contents of a web page; however, a screen reader can read only text, not images or animations. It is desirable, therefore, that images and animations be assigned text descriptions that screen readers can read. These text descriptions are called alternative text, or alt text.
Users with mobility issues may rely on the keyboard instead of the mouse to navigate web pages. For individuals with nerve damage, arthritis, or repetitive motion injuries, use of the mouse may not be comfortable or possible. Using only Tab and Enter on the keyboard, it is possible for these individuals to negotiate a page with ease. Many users of the Internet have the capability to navigate without a mouse and are simply unaware of it. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, pressing Tab moves the focus of the browser among all available links on a page. (The dotted lines around links in Internet Explorer are an indicator of this capability.) Pressing Enter activates links, much like clicking a mouse.
In some cases, users may employ touch screens, head pointers, or other assistive devices. A touch screen allows an individual to navigate the page using her or his hands without the fine-motor control required by the mouse. A head pointer is simply a stick placed in a person's mouth or mounted on a head strap that the person uses to interact with a keyboard or a touch screen.
In these cases, it is very important that essential components of the page work without a mouse. Rollovers, pull-down lists, and interactive simulations are all examples of elements that typically depend on the mouse for user interaction. The designer or developer of these elements must ensure that keyboard-defined events are included along with mouse-defined events. A quick test using the keystrokes available in Internet Explorer can provide a valuable glimpse of the difficulties a web page may present for users with disabilities.
Help Us Make Our Site Accessible
We welcome your suggestions and comments. Please send us your feedback on our site accessibility.
