Site accessibility

Keyboard access:

To go back to the home page, use key 1 on the keyboard: in Windows, with the combinations: alt + shift + 1 or alt +1 and in Apple, with the combination: ctrl + 1 or apple + 1.
To access the site plan, use key 3 in an identical manner. The legal notices can be accessed with the key 8. Access to the present page is via the key 0 on your keyboard.

Alternative styles

The site is constructed with a system of alternative style sheets which enable you to consult it and print the site according to your settings of the navigation preferences.

Compliance with the W3C standards

The XHTML code complies with the HTML Specification of the W3C ; the CSS code complies with the CSS2 Specification.
It is tested by means of the CSS validator of the W3C; however, a bug known to the validator (connected with the character coding) prevents direct CSS validation from the HTML files. The URLs to be submitted to the CSS validator are therefore those of the style sheets themselves; the site’s pages follow the Guidelines for accessibility to the Web contents. They are tested by means of the WebXact and Wave validators.

Accessibility rules

In its current version, we respect all the accessibility rules of level 1; all the accessibility rules of level 2; all the accessibility rules of level 3.

Images

A text equivalent is provided via the alt attribute of the significant images when they are not described specifically in the text that they illustrate. The alt attribute of the non-significant images is empty. The page layout does not use invisible images (priority 1); the images are used only when there is no CSS element, by totally separating presentation and content; this makes it possible for the documents outside CSS to retain a consistent order:

• The title, the contents, the menus (priority 1);
• The site is organized in sections grouping together the articles by topics (priority 2);
• The page layout of the site is based solely on external style sheets (priority 2);
• the pages are structured by means of the titles h1.h6, employed in the appropriate order (priority 2);
• the information forming lists of items are marked by means of the elements ul, ol and dl (priority 2);
• the presentation style is consistent throughout the site, since a single style sheet is used (priority 3).
  

Scripts

The few client scripts used on the site do not have any function which is essential for navigation or consultation of the pages. The latter are accessible without a JavaScript support (priority 1).

Character re-sizing

In order to enable users to alter the appearance or the size of the characters, the page layout is based on the use of relative units (em and percentages) rather than absolute units (pixels) (priority 2).
You can increase or reduce the size of the characters in the menu of your navigator (View > Text size) or by means of your mouse (Ctrl key while moving the knob).

Metadata

The site pages use a set of standardized metadata (Dublin Core - priority 2).

Navigation and links

The site plan is accessible from each page; the navigation menus reflect the structure of the information (priority 2). They give permanent access to the whole site (priority 3); the related links are grouped together logically and structurally. The adjacent links are separated by printable characters to prevent them from being confused by the assistance technologies (priority 3).

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