Accessibility Notes

Skip to information about What is Accessibility? | Page Layout | Title Text | Data Tables | Tree View | Date Format

What is Accessibility?

Information on the Web needs to be accessible to those with functional impairments in accordance with 508 requirements. Accessibility refers to ensuring that access to information is available to the widest possible audience. The design of a web site determines its accessibility.

  • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended in 1998, is a Federal mandate that requires that information technology be accessible to people with disabilities.
  • It requires that Federal agencies electronic and information technology (EIT) developed, procured, maintained, or used by the Federal government be accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and members of the public.

The following notes provide explanations of features used on this site. These explanations are intended to assist those users who may be using some form of assistive technology when accessing this site.

Page Layout
Once past the Logon screen, most pages in CDR have a similar layout. CDR screens contain three navigation areas and an internal frame known technically as an “iframe”.
Site Navigation
The first navigation area is used for site navigation. It contains links to each of CDR’s seven application sections. The content of the site navigation area is the same on all pages. Choosing a site navigation link will reload the entire web page.
Section Navigation
The second navigation area is used for sectional navigation. CDR contains seven sections and each of these sections has a unique set of sectional navigation links. Choosing a section navigational link will not reload the entire web page. Instead, the information contained in the page’s internal frame will change.
Work Area
The next section of the screen is known as the “Work Area’. This is the page’s framed area and it is the target of the sectional navigational links. The content of the Work Area will change when a section link is selected.
Page End Navigation
The final area of the screen is known as the Page End Navigation Links. This is a collection of six links to pages contain information about the CDR application.

Title Text
Many screen elements on this site, such as links, buttons, etc., contain a more detailed description than that provided by the on-screen text. This additional information is contained within the element’s Title attribute. Some accessibility tools do not read the Title attribute's text by default, but can be configured to do so. It is recommended that you use the description contained in the element's Title attribute rather than relying solely on the on-screen text.

Data Tables
Data tables presented on this site display their data and associated information in four sections.
1) Table Summary
A statistical summary of the table is presented before the table's data. This summary consists of the number of pages that are required to view the table and the total number of records contained within the table.
2) Column Headings
Most data tables on this site can be sorted. If a table’s contents can be sorted, then the each of the table’s column headings will also be links. Selecting a particular column heading's link will sort the table by the values in that column.
3) Data Rows
The third section of a table consists of the table's data rows. It is not uncommon for one or more of the columns in a table to contain links to more detailed information about that row in the table.
4) Page Links
When a table contains excessive data, the table's contents will be split over a number of physical pages. When this occurs the Table Summary, displayed at the beginning of the table, will indicate the total number of pages required to display the complete table, and a series of page links will appear at the end of the table. The page links appearing at the end of the table consist of a series of increasing integer values, each of which is a link to an associated page of data.

Tree View
The contents of Taxonomies are represented using a cascading hierarchical structure that has been described as a tree. This tree structure is similar to that used to represent a computer’s folders and their contents. At each level or branch of the tree a number of items may be found. These items may themselves contain additional items in a parent-child relationship.

Screens that contain a tree structure declare that fact at the beginning of the screen.

Navigation
Navigation through the tree can be accomplished by using the Tab keys. To select a node as the current node, tab to it and press enter. The current node will expose its contents. Work can only be performed on the current node of a Taxonomy.
Description
The current node will start its description with the word “current”. Every node contains a level number indicating its relative position within the hierarchy.

Date Format
The format for all dates is MM/DD/YYYY. (Leading zeros are not required for the month or day.) When a date is to be entered, it may be manually typed using the keyboard, or it may be chosen from a popup calendar which results from selecting the associated "Calendar" popup link.