Browsers & Plugins

Metro.net is best viewed with the most current version of all major browsers. Please note that technology constantly changes, so we’ve established the following baseline with which our Internet content should be viewed.

Browsers

• Internet Explorer 7 and above;
• Mozilla Firefox 3 and above;
• Apple Safari; and
  
• Google Chrome

Plug-ins

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.

Metro.net is best viewed with the most current version of all recommended plugins. 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.

Accessibility

A document that is accessible according to standards associations and software validation also requires appropriate tools to then read and present the content to the user.  Unfortunately, the various assistive devices and software available have varying levels of functionality and thus might not be able to fully support an accessible document.

Compare the situation to a wheelchair ramp used to make a building accessible.  Although the ramp provides the components for access, an individual with mobility challenges still requires a wheelchair to navigate the ramp and access the building.  In the case of this project then, the accessibility hooks within the PDF and HTML documents are like the ramp, while the user’s screen reader software is the wheelchair.

The following is a list of commercial and open source software, along with some general recommendations and limitations:

*A plug-in is an application that provides additional functionality to the standard browser.