Activelink works with non-profit organisations to develop online communications in the public interest, to promote action and participation and to foster the sharing of ideas, experience and information for a better world.

Welcome to Activelink Reader!

This is the version of Activelink for visitors using screen-readers, magnifiers, or other assistive technology to read web pages.

To read this version properly, you should be viewing this page on reader.activelink.ie - please use this link to switch to it if you are viewing it from a different domain.

Quick Guide

  • All of the content of Activelink is available here, in a simple left-aligned single-column layout.
  • The footer of each page contains the site menus and then a search form.
  • Where images have been used for illustrative purposes we have tried to supply useful alternative text.
  • JavaScript and AJAX are not used to deliver content here - these pages have no dynamic content.

Rationale

We are seeing more use of JavaScript, AJAX and other technology that dynamically updates web-content. While useful, these technologies can present a major barrier to the accessibility of information. Our site uses a modern content management system (CMS) that can automatically present the same information in different forms. When we have created the necessary views of our data for screenreaders then it costs us nothing further to impart information through them. This way we can provide the optimal delivery of our information to each visitor to our site.

Alpha product - your feedback would be useful

We still have a lot of work to do to optimise the accessibility of Activelink. Here are some of our todos with guesstimated implementation dates.

  • Style guides for new posts - we should have style guides fully in place by December 2010. This will see better use of headings and better naming of links.
  • The 'Job Calendar' needs to be made reader-friendly. This should be done some time in December 2010. This will have to be done after other work presently underway on time-based workflows has been completed. Here is a link to a presently more useful alternative page with vacancy listings
  • The conversion of the styles in existing data to more accessible ones, by February 2011. This extends to both the improvement of the styles used in IrishLinks and Community Exchange data and the improvement of our CMS and its 'themes' in order to improve the styling of its delivery.
  • The provision of 'Launch Pads' as starting-points for our readers. While we can make guesses as to what will be useful, such as blog-style summaries of recent posts, we can best meet people's requirements if they tell us what they are, so please let us know what yours are before February 2011!
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