by Annette Carter
My name is Annette Carter, Web Site Administrator, contracted with ACB to administer and maintain www.acb.org. I have been with ACB since January 2012, but have been a member of ACB and some of its affiliates for years. I am excited to be part of the team that does so much invaluable work with so many active members voluntarily contributing to its success. You may or may not have noticed some changes on our web site.
What's New?
The front page is dynamic with fresh, new content changing on a regular basis. So come back often to see what's new.
Behind the scenes there are increased security measures in place that further protect our site as well as your information when filling out an application or making a donation.
You may have participated in the holiday auction and found it convenient to have the item descriptions and photos online.
Accessibility
Enhanced accessibility includes screen reader navigation by heading levels, lists (numbered and bullets), and filling out and submitting forms with required fields labeled.
For the low vision site visitor, options are included for color combinations of font and background and font size by a button right up front in the header. Also included are "hover tags," a text box that appears when a mouse hovers over a link in an article, menu list, or photo. These hover tags are the same descriptions that a screen reader announces. Also, where downloadable files are available, such as "The ACB Braille Forum," look for a large print format.
For sighted visitors, improved visual appearance includes a clearer logo, easy-on-the-eyes color background as well as improved font clarity and layout, encouraging the visitor to linger and read more about us. There are more photos (alt-tagged of course) to be visually appealing and interesting dotted throughout the site that will increase as we go along.
Read our newly updated About Us page with photos presented in a visually appealing way by going to www.acb.org/about.
How Smart is Your Smart Phone?
Many of you may have encountered web sites that have a link offering you to choose a special layout of their web site to be more compatible with, and accessible from, your mobile device. Some web sites have no alternate layout, leaving you with skewed content that is difficult to navigate, or completely absent information. It can be a challenge to make a web site look and work well on all the new screen sizes. Did you know that some web sites can be built to be easy to read and interact with on all screen sizes, all from one basic layout? ACB.org is built that way. Try it. If you already use your mobile device to access web sites, you can not only browse acb.org to read articles and pages, but you can also make a donation, receive immediate e-mail confirmation of the donation, e-mail an article or page to a friend, fill out and submit a scholarship application, read the ACB Constitution and Bylaws, browse "The ACB Braille Forum," download each of the offered Forum formats, and listen to ACB Reports. Good to know, huh?
Even the accessibility choices for low vision site visitors work beautifully from your mobile device. That means you can, directly from the "Text Size & Color Choices" button in the header, choose a text size, and/or choose a color combination of font and background colors.
These features are designed to benefit you, the member or site visitor. But have you thought of how they could benefit ACB? When you are talking with people and boasting about all we do as an organization, and you think they may be interested in finding out more about ACB or making a donation, have them open their mobile device and they will notice the handy "Donate Now" button. It takes them immediately to all they want to know about our organization, and the form is easy to complete, with immediate confirmation of their gift being submitted. Could it get more convenient? Pass the word; support ACB.
There are currently about 1,200 pages on www.acb.org and increasing very rapidly. As time permits, I am going back on previously created pages to update the accessibility. If you have compliments or suggestions for the web administrator, feel free to send an e-mail to the web task force chair, Nolan Crabb, at [email protected]. If you are from an ACB committee or affiliate and want content changed or added to the web site, send an e-mail to Nolan Crabb at [email protected] with copy to Melanie Brunson at [email protected].