Metro is commited to providing accessible online information (per Section 508) by conforming to WAI's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Please note that technology constantly changes, so we’ve established the following baseline with which our Internet content should be viewed.
Browsers
metro.net is best viewed with the most current version of all major browsers.
Plug-ins
metro.net is best viewed with the most current version of all recommended plugins. These plugins are free for download.
In addition to information provided on standard web pages, Metro offers content in various formats. Although not required to access our core information, this supplemental information requires plug-ins*, or add-ons to your standard browser in order to access. To utilize this supplemental information, you may be prompted to download the following plug-ins or software:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader – provides the ability to access Portable Document Format (pdf) files. Examples of added browser functionality includes (but not limited to) viewing, printing, zoom and form completion;
- Adobe Flash Player – provides the ability to access Shockwave Files (swf) via your browser. Flash files offer the added capability of viewing interactive content such as animation, video, self-contained multimedia experiences. 99 percent of all browsers have this plug-in installed;
- Apple QuickTime Player – provides the ability to access QuickTime (.mov) format files;and
- Windows Media Player – provides the ability for users to access Windows media (.wmv, mpeg, etc) files from within your browser
Applications
- Microsoft Office applications – a small number of files (%) are published by Metro in the Word, PowerPoint or Excel format (.doc, .ppt, xls). These files required that the user have these Office applications resident on their computer to view these files.
- Google Docs Viewer – view PDFs, MS Office files, and other proprietary documents types by entering the link of the document.
Screen Readers
A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the computer screen. Various assistive devices and softwares have varying levels of functionality and thus might not be able to fully support an accessible document. The following is a list of commercial and open source software, along with some general recommendations and limitations:
General Accessibility recommendations and limitations
| Product |
License |
PDF Support |
PDF Table Support |
Notes |
| JAWS 8 and Above |
Commercial |
Yes |
Yes |
Complete accessibility functionality |
| Window Eyes 7.1 |
Commercial |
Yes |
Limited |
Ignores Scope Attribute in Table Cells |
| NVDA |
Open Source |
Yes |
Limited |
Takes a long time to process large files; row and column headers are not read |
| AccessiblePDF |
Freeware |
No
|
No |
Relies on converting PDF files to either HTML (web view) or text (text view). Conversion does not retain table structure. |
| Microsoft Narrator |
Included with Windows |
No |
No |
Does not support table functions |
| WebAnywhere |
Open Source |
No |
No |
Web based reader that relies on Google conversion of PDF documents. Converted documents do not retain table structure. |
| Fire Vox |
Open Source |
No |
No |
May read HTML Versions, Supports Table Functions. Can convert PDFs to HTML using Acrobat Pro, or Adobe's free online converter. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html
|
| Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents |
Free Service |
N/A |
N/A |
Converts PDF documents into HTML retaining structure from a Tagged PDF. Can be read by an open source web screen reader such as Fire Vox |
*A plug-in is an application that provides additional functionality to the standard browser.
Last Revised
Wednesday January 23, 2013
Last Revised
Thursday April 01, 2010
