Accessibility

Education Counts' endeavours to be a highly accessible website. Its design and development specifically maximise accessibility. This site employs many features to make information more accessible, including:

• Images and hyperlinks have text title alternatives (ALT attributes) to help describe what the image is, and where a link takes you.

• Pages are organized to be fully functional, even with javascript turned off.

• The site can be navigated without the use of a mouse. (see instructions below)

• The user can skip the navigation and go straight to the main content of the page. (see instructions below)

• All text uses relative font sizes so text can be enlarged or reduced using the text size options available in visual browsers. (see instructions below)

• All pages use flexible page formats so pages can be automatically resized for different window sizes and screen resolutions.

• All pages are designed with separate cascading style sheets, so they can be replaced by user-defined style sheets.

• This site follows World Wide Web and NZ E-Government accessibility guidelines.

If you have difficulty navigating or accessing any of the information that this site provides, please contact the Ministry via email webmaster@educationcounts.govt.nz, and we will endeavour to supply you with the information being sought and to address any technical difficulties.

Using the site without a mouse

The site can be used without a mouse. The following shortcut keys will take you to commonly used pages such as the home page:

The procedure for using shortcut, or 'Access' keys, varies depending on which web browser you view the site with. The following table shows the Access Key combinations for a range of popular web browsers:

 

Operating System	Browser	Access Key Combination
PC Windows	Internet Explorer 4 and above	ALT + Access Key (to focus the link) + ENTER to activate
PC Windows	K-meleon	ALT + Access Key
PC Windows	Mozilla	ALT + Shift + Access Key
PC Windows	Netscape 6 and above	ALT + Access Key
PC Windows	Opera 7	SHIFT + ESC, followed by Access Key
MAC OS 9	Internet Explorer 4 and 4.5	Not supported
MAC OS 9	Mozilla	Not supported
MAC OS 9	Netscape 4	Not supported
MAC OS 9	Opera	Not supported
MAC OS X	I-Cab 2.8	CONTROL + Access Key * * you may need to click on the page first
MAC OS X	Internet Explorer 5 and 5.1	CONTROL + Access Key * * some systems require CONTROL + COMMAND + Access Key
MAC OS X	Mozilla	Not supported
MAC OS X	Netscape 6 and above	CONTROL + Access Key
MAC OS X	OmniWeb 4	Not supported
MAC OS X	Opera	Not supported
MAC OS X	Safari	Not supported

Skip Navigation Link

To help those who use screen readers to access/view Education Counts we have added a skipping link to each page. This link allows the user to jump to the main content of the page, skipping the top banner links, left-hand side navigation links, and the breadcrumb links. The main content of the page is deemed to start at the top-left hand corner; directly next to the page title (usually within a summary box).

To use this option, 'Tab' twice and push 'Enter'/'Return' (the first Tab takes you to the address bar the second to the Skip Navigation Link). Alternatively you can move your cursor to the Skip Navigation Link, which is directly to the left of the Education Counts logo at the top of the page, and push 'Enter'/'Return'.

Use of text on this site

Most navigation elements are plain text and we have provided text alternatives to images on the site.

Those with poor sight may be able to increase the size of the text on screen. The procedure for doing so differs from one browser to the next. The table below outlines the procedure for some popular browsers. If your browser does not appear in the table the following guidelines may be of assistance: In general, looking under the "View" selection on the main menu, you should find an option called "Text Zoom" or "Text Magnification" or "Text Size" or "Font Size". From that point it should be relatively simple to find and select an additional sub menu option that adjusts text size to your needs.

Operating System	Browser
PC Windows	Internet Explorer 3 and 4	View > Fonts
PC Windows	Internet Explorer 5+	View > Text Size
PC Windows	K-meleon	View > Increase Font / Decrease Font
PC Windows	Mozilla	View > Increase Text Size / Decrease Text Size
PC Windows	Netscape 6	View > Text Size
PC Windows	Netscape 7	View > Text Zoom
PC Windows	Opera 5 and 6	Use drop down menu on 'progress' bar
PC Windows	Opera 7	View > Zoom
MAC	I-Cab	View > Font Size
MAC	Internet Explorer 4.5	View > Text Size
MAC	Internet Explorer 5+	View > Text Zoom
MAC	Netscape 4	View > Increase/Decrease Font Size
MAC	Netscape 7	View > Text Zoom
MAC	Opera 5 and 6	Use drop down menu on 'progress' bar
MAC	OmniWeb 4	Browser > Bigger Text / Smaller Text
MAC	Safari	View > Text Size