This site has adopted Web standards in order to offer complete accessibility of its pages to the disabled (full or partial loss of sight, motor or intellectual disability, etc.) while remaining fully compatible with technical aids (refreshable Braille display, voice reader, mouseless navigation, etc.).
Alternative styles
The site has been built with a system of alternative style sheets that allow for site consultation and printouts based on your preferred navigation settings.
Compliance with W3C Standards
The HTML code is compliant with HTML 1.0 Specifications. It has been tested using the W3C HTML validator; moreover, the CSS code is compliant with CSS2 Specifications.
It has been tested with the W3C CSS validator. A known bug in this validator (related to character coding) has however prevented direct CSS validation from the HTML files. The URLs to be submitted to the CSS validator are thus taken from the style sheets themselves; all site pages respect the Directives applicable to Web content accessibility.
Accessibility rules
In its current version, we are compliant with all level 1, level 2 and level 3 accessibility rules.
Images
A textual equivalent is provided of all significant images via the "Alt" attribute whenever they have not been precisely described in the text being illustrated. The "Alt" attribute for insignificant images remains empty. Page formatting does not make use of invisible images (priority 1); also, images are only introduced in the absence of an HTML element capable of transmitting the particular information (priority 2).
Layout and presentation
The use of CSS positioning properties, in fully separating presentation from content, makes it possible for documents to retain outside of CSS a consistent order, i.e.:
- Title, contents, menus (priority 1);
- The site has been organized into sections combining articles by theme (priority 2);
- Site formatting relies exclusively on external style sheets (priority 2);
- Pages have been structured according to titles h1.h6, as implemented in the appropriate order (priority 2);
- Information giving rise to lists of items has been marked using ul, ol and dl elements (priority 2);
- The presentation style is consistent throughout the site, with just a single style sheet being used (priority 3).
Scripts
The infrequent client scripts found on the site do not serve a vital navigation or page consultation function. These scripts are accessible without any JavaScript support (priority 1).
Resizing of characters
To enable users to modify the character size display, formatting relies on the use of relative units (em and percentages) rather than absolute units (pixels) (priority 2).
You're free to increase or decrease the character size in your browser menu (Display > Text size) or through a mouse-activated command (Ctrl key held down with wheel movement).
Metadata
Site pages make use of a standardized metadata set (namely Dublin Core - priority 2).
Navigation and links
The site map is accessible from each page; the navigation menus match the information layout (priority 2).
These menus provide permanent access to the entire site (priority 3); all associated links are combined according to logic and structure. Adjacent links are separated by printable characters in order to avoid their confusion by the particular assistance technologies (priority 3).