WEBSITE NAVIGATION
GENERAL
This website was developed for optimal display with Windows® XP and later and Internet Explorer® 6 and
later. It will work with other combinations of Operating Systems and Web Browsers; however, some small quirks in
the way pages display may be noticed. This is unavoidable. There are over 100 different Web Browsers and each
implements and interprets the web standards their own way. See the table at the bottom of this page for Operating
System/Web Browser combinations that were tested with this site and seem to work.
In addition, the width of the web pages, except for the Photo Gallery, has been set to 840 pixels (which takes up only about half the width on a wide screen) to accommodate portable web–enabled devices such as the iPhone and similar devices, so that those users don’t have to constantly scroll left–to–right to view all of the content.
SITE NAVIGATION MENU
The site navigation menu along the left side of every page is constructed of pure HTML and CSS (no JavaScript is
needed). “Access keys” are implemented on each menu item as indicated by the underlined first letter.
On windows systems, the top menu item (HOME) can be selected by pressing [ALT] + H. Pressing [ENTER] will then go
to the Home Page. Pressing [TAB] will scroll through the successive menu items. With Internet Explorer®, the
“Hover” effect is not supported, so the next level fly–out menu will not appear like it does when
hovering over the parent menu selection with a mouse. On an Apple Mac with OS X, hold down the [CONTROL] key and
press the underlined letter to access the navigation item.
Press the [ALT] key + 1 (for Apple Mac, press the [CONTROL] key+1) to select the site search box to fill in a search
term. Then press [TAB] to select the “Search” button and press [ENTER] to initiate the search.
To access the Language Translation buttons (country flags), press the [ALT] key + H to go to the “Home”
navigation menu item, then press [SHIFT] + [TAB] until the desired language is highlighted.
It is said that the inclusion of “Access Keys” on a webpage disables the use of those key combinations
for screen readers for the blind. Since the “Access Keys” don’t work in all browsers, they may
be removed in the future.
Internet Explorer® users can use [ALT] key + [LEFT ARROW] key to simulate the browser “Back” button and [ALT] key + [RIGHT ARROW] key to simulate the browser “Forward” button.
WEB STANDARDS
This website was developed using the latest web standards (XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0). Every page contains a DTD (
Document Type Declaration) so the page displays in “Standards” mode and not in “Quirks”
mode. All pages were checked for valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0.
Each webpage also declares an XML namespace and “English” as the primary language. The “HEAD” section of every page contains a “META” tag declaring “UTF–8” (8–bit UNICODE) as the accepted character set. This character set can accommodate US and British English as well as all the accented characters used in Eastern European languages.
BLIND/LOW VISION USER ACCESSIBILITY
Where possible, this website was designed to accommodate blind/low vision visitors. The foreground and background
colors have been calculated to fall into acceptable contrast ranges to enhance usability for visually challenged
users. In addition, the use of reds and blues has been kept to a minimum to make this website more visually friendly
to users with certain types of color blindness.
All pages were checked for compatibility with screen readers used by the blind using AChecker online web accessibility
tool from the Adaptive Technologies Resource Center of the University of Toronto.
The CAPTCHA used on the membership application and race team application forms has an audio option to accommodate
blind users.
All images use the “alt” tag, which is used by screen readers for the blind to describe what the image depicts.
TABLES
The use of tables in this website has been kept to a minimum. The events calendars were implemented as tables to minimize the use of JavaScript. Tables, especially nested tables, can be confusing for screen readers for the blind.
JAVASCRIPT
The use of JavaScript on this website has been kept to a minimum. The most prominent used of JavaScript are in the “Accordion” used to display “About US/Club Leadership” and the “Rollbar” used to display the “Weather” pages. Some other minor uses are found in some of the forms and other pages. Where possible, the JavaScript code was chosen for its ability to gracefully degrade for those browsers with JavaScript turned off or for browsers that do not support JavaScript. In some instances, a “noscript” option is provided for non–supporting browsers.
SITEMAP
A sitemap has been provided at http://www.pittsburghskiclub.org/sitemap.html for those who cannot navigate the website using the navigation menu. This sitemap is constructed in pure HTML and no JavaScript is needed to use it. Most of the sitemap entries are “Hot Links”. Clicking on a “Hot Link” will take you to the appropriate website page.
SITE SEARCH
A site search function has been provided above the navigation menu. Fill in a search term(s) in the input box and click on the “Search” button. The search input box can also be accessed by pressing [ALT] key + 1 (for Apple Mac, press the [CONTROL] key+1). Pressing the [TAB] key will then focus on the “Search” button. Search results are returned as a list of “Hot Links” with content descriptions. Clicking on any link will take you to the web page containing the described content.
LANGUAGE TRANSLATION
For those visitors whose first language is not English, there are four flag icons above the “Site Search” box. They represent four languages that the website can be translated into (English, French, German and Spanish). Google provides the translation services. Once at the Google translated page, there is a pull–down box in the header at the top of the page where any of 48 other language translations can be selected. After selecting a language, click on the “Translate” button. Yes, Arabic and similar languages will read right–to–left.
DOWNLOADING DOCUMENTS
Some website pages allow the opening or downloading of .pdf (Adobe® portable document format) documents stored on the website. To view the files, click on the link. To download the files, do one of the following:
Windows users, right click on the link then left click on “Save target as” to download the file to your computer.
Mac users, hold down the “Options” button and click on the link, then select “Save” to download the file
to your computer.
LONG PAGES
Long pages such as the “History” page have a “Top” icon in the bottom left corner of the page. The icon is a hot link. Clicking on it will take you to the top of the page without having to scroll the entire way.
MAILTO: LINKS
Hot links to specific email addresses (mailto: links) are indexed to prevent web–bots from automatically harvesting the addresses for SPAM purposes. Clicking on these links will still send a raw header to the browser, which will launch the default email client with the “To:” address already filled in. Indexing takes place in a piece of code on the web server and is thus out of view of the browser.
MEMBERS ONLY AREA
The “Members Only” area of the website is accessible only to logged on members. Current active members may register a username and password and use these credentials to log onto the website to gain access to “Members Only” content. Attempts to gain access to these protected pages without logging on will launch a custom Error 401 “Unauthorized Access” page.
RSS
On the Home Page, below the navigation menu, there is a square orange icon with white radio waves. This is a RSS
(really simple syndication) icon. By clicking on this icon, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for this website.
Subscribed users will be notified when content on this website changes instead of having to check the website
periodically. You must have a RSS reader installed on your computer to take advantage of this service. The RSS feed
XML document has been validated to ensure it can be read by RSS aggregators supporting RSS versions 0.91 and 2.0.
TESTED OPERATING STSTEM/BROWSER COMBINATIONS
The following operating system and browser combinations have been tested and determined to display the home page
acceptably:
APPLE MAC–Used by 2.65% of our visitors
OS–X Version 10.5
Firefox 3.0.10 or later (Used by 10.99% of our visitors)
Safari 3.1.2 or later (Used by 2.29% of our visitors)
LINUX–Used by 0.27% of our visitors
Ubuntu Version 8.04
Epiphany 2.22 or later
Flock 2.0 or later
Kazehakase 0.5.2 or later
Minefield 3.6 or later
Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6 or later
Opera 10.00 or later (Used by 1.15% of our visitors)
Note: Firefox 1.5.0.13 and Firefox 2.0 will not display the page, Dillo 2.0 and Konqueror 3.5 display incorrectly
but the page may be readable and navigable.
Ubuntu Version 8.10
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 or later (Used by 10.99% of our visitors)
Debian–Testing
Flock 1.2.6 or later
Iceape 1.1.13 or later
Iceweasel 3.0.4 or later
Seamonkey 2.0 or later
Shiretoko 3.5 or later
Note: Konqueror 4.2 will not display the page
Debian Version 4.0 or later
Iceweasel 2.0.0.16 or later
Red Hat Fedora Version 7 or later
Opera 9.6.4 or later (Used by 1.15% of our visitors)
Seamonkey 1.1.9 or later
UNIX–Used by 11.88% of our visitors
FreeBSD Version 7.1 or later
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.20 or later (Used by 10.99% of our visitors)
Galeon 2.0.7 or later
Kazehakase 0.5.4 or later
Seamonkey 1.1.15 or later
Note: Dillo 2.0 displays incorrectly but the page may be readable and navigable.
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
Windows 2000–Used by 1.60% of our visitors
Internet Explorer 5.01 or later
Note: Internet Explorer 4.01 displays incorrectly but the page may be readable and navigable.
Windows 2003–Used by 3.38% of our visitors
Flock 1.2.7 or later
Windows XP and Windows Vista–Used by 78.24% of our visitors
Avant 11.7 or later
Google Chrome 0.4.154.25 or later
Mozilla Foxfire 2.0.0.19 or later (Used by 10.99% of our visitors)
Flock 2.5 or later
Internet Explorer 5.01 or later
K–Meleon 1.5.0 or later
Netscape Navigator 8.1.3 or later
Opera 7.5.4 or later (Used by 1.15% of our visitors)
Safari 3.2.1 or later (Used by 2.29% of our visitors)
Seamonkey 1.1.16 or later
Shiretoko 3.5 or later
Note: Firefox 0.9 displays incorrectly but the page may be readable and navigable.
