ERIE COUNTY WEB ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS

Thank you for visiting the Erie County website and reviewing our web accessibility standards.  Pages on this site are currently being reviewed and revised to be accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance with provisions of the Section 508 Workforce Investment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We are in the process of revising our web development practices in accordance with meeting Priority 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as addressed in the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. If you are having a problem accessing this web site, please let us know and we will work to ensure you can successfully access our information and forms.

Below are some examples of how these features may be helpful to you...

Large Fonts

Text on our web site can easily be increased to almost twice its normal size.
If you are using Internet Explorer 5 or 6, try it out:

• Open Internet Explorer's "View" menu (or press Alt + V)
• Select "Text Size" (press X)
• Select "Largest" (press G)

  (Turn Large Fonts off by doing the same but selecting "Medium" or pressing M.)

High Contrast

Our web site automatically works with Windows' "High Contrast" mode.
If your computer is already set for High Contrast mode, activate it by pressing:

• (Left) Alt + (Left) Shift + Print Screen

  (Turn High Contrast off by pressing the same keys again.)

Otherwise, see Microsoft's Step by Step Tutorials for instructions on how to turn High Contrast mode on.

Additionally, upon completion of our accessibility revisions you will also be able to navigate our site using the following methods:

Keyboard

If you are uncomfortable with the mouse, you will soon be able to operate the entire Erie County web site using just the keyboard:

• Press the Tab key to move from link to link (or Shift + Tab to move backwards).
• Press the Enter key to activate a link.
• Use Alt + Left Arrow to go back a page.

Or, to fill out forms:

• Press the Tab key to move from field to field.
• Press Up Arrow or Down Arrow to move between items in a list.
• Press Spacebar to check or uncheck radio buttons and checkboxes.
• Press Enter to activate buttons.

Assistive Technology

Our web site will soon be compatible with "assistive technology" software that can help people with disabilities. For example, people who are blind will be able to use JAWS for Windows or IBM Home Page Reader to read the Erie County web site out loud, and people who have trouble using their hands will be able to control the Erie County web site using only Dragon Naturally Speaking and their voice.