Accessibility Statement

We are committed to ensuring that our website is accessible to everyone. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of this site, please use our contact form, as we are continually striving to improve the experience for all of our visitors.

Standards Compliance

1. All pages on this site follow U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines.
2. All pages on this site follow priorities 1 & 2 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
3. All pages on this site validate as XHTML5 or HTML5.
4. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H2 tags are used for main titles and H3 tags for subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+3. Opera users can skip sections by using "S" and "W" to cycle forwards and backward, respectively, through headings.

United States soldiers assistance center

Structural Markup

Web pages on United States Soldiers Assistance Center include 4 different areas:

1. A page header that includes the page title
2. A top bar that includes the main navigation,
3. A main content area,
4. A footer that includes links to other areas, such as this document.

When CSS (Cascading Styles Sheet) is not applied to a document (or when using a screen reader), the 4 areas are read in the above order.

Access Keys

This site does not use the access key attribute. Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the website. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.
Unfortunately, access keys often clash with keys set aside for use with other U.A.s (i.e., assistive technology). For this reason, we have decided not to include the attribute in our markup.

Images

1. Unless they are purely decorative items, all images used on this website have suitable alt attributes.
2. Content should be usable/accessible with images "off" (disabled).

Links

1. Many links have title attributes that describe the link in greater detail; unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
2. Links are written to make sense out of context.
3. The first link in every document is a "SkipNav"; it is to skip directly to what is considered the main section of the page (the content). We have implemented this feature in a way that allows Internet Explorer users to tab through (past that target link).

Forms

1. All form controls are appropriately and explicitly labeled.
2. We provide an email address as an alternative form of access for our online forms.
3. Form validation routine does not rely on client-side script.

Scripts

1. We are using non-obtrusive client-side scripts.
2. The content of this website is usable without JavaScript support.

External Sites

Unless otherwise noted, links to external sites open in the same window.

1. In visual browsers, unless JavaScript is disabled, a small icon (
2. ) Appears next to links to some external resources; the title attribute of these links says "(opens in new window)." This is provided because the external site(s) in question uses scripting or markup, which breaks the back button or makes it difficult to return to this site.
3. Browsers with Popup Blockers should be able to access these external documents.

Visual Design

1. This site uses Cascading Style Sheets for visual layout.
2. This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified text size option in visual browsers.
3. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.
4. Any information conveyed through the use of color is also available without color (i.e., text-based).

How To Modify This Site to Fit Your Needs

These links explain the many ways you can make the web more accessible to you.

Windows users
Mac users
Linux users

Accessibility References
W3 accessibility guidelines, which explain the reasons behind each guideline.
W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline.
W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility.
U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility Software
JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
Lynx - A free text-only web browser for blind users with Refreshable Braille Display.
Links - A free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.
Opera - A visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, and image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.

Accessibility Services
HiSoftware reg; Cynthia Says trade, a free service to analyze web pages for compliance with accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.
HTML Validator - A free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer - A tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
Lynx Viewer - A free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.

Related Resources
WebAIM - A non-profit organization dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.Designing More Usable Websites, a large list of additional resources.