Technical documentation
Accessibility and legal compliance
standards compliance
All pages are built to comply with the following standards (or recommendations):
- WCAG 1.0 Priority Level 2 (Double-A)
- XHTML 1.0 Strict
Each page has been validated using th World Web Web Consortium's HTML and CSS validation services.
Explicit evidence of this can be found in two places other places. The first validation was performed before the site went “live”. The second validation took place after the web site was uploaded. Below is proof of a third validation, which was performed after the two web promotional measures and the two data capture methods were implemented; during regular routine site maintenance.
This explicitly shows ongoing testing and monitoring of site performance.
images and scripts
All images used on the web site have suitable alt attributes (or empty alt attributes for purely decorative items). JavaScript is kept to a bare minimum too, and no content section should be unusable if JavaScript is not enabled or not supported in a user's web browser. However, none of the special display controls will function without it - this is unavoidable.
Section 508 and the Disability Discrimination Act
The Disability Discrimination Act requires that web site owners in the UK ensure that their web sites are accessible to people with disabilities - just as public buildings are required to be accessible to these groups. Section 508 is the American equivalent.
Since 1st October 1999 service providers in the UK have been required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people to help them to use their services. This legislation quite rightly includes web sites and as it is actually fairly easy to make a site accessible (far easier than needing to adapt a building, for example) there is no reason why site owners should not comply. In fact there are clear business benefits in doing so.
From the very beginning the PSD site was designed with disabled users in mind. It's high contrast and consistent design along with it's useful range of display controls makes any aspect of the site available to any user of the world wide web. It is therefore my belief that it complies fully with both UK and US law.
Legal disclaimer
Below is the legal statement that is linked to on every single page of the website.
The usual legal disclaimers really. All very boring, but some people like to know this. So, here we go - all the things you really shouldn't find interesting but apparently do.
- All images, wording and site design remains the intellectual copyright of Pipeline Software Development unless otherwise stated.
- This site does link to third party sites but does not claim responsibility for the content of those sites. If any webmaster from any sites linked to in this manner objects, please contact us and we will refrain from linking to you in the future.
- This site does not use cookies to collect any personal information from you. It does use a cookie to remember your preference for the display of the page and nothing else.
- Pipeline Software Development is not affiliated to ANY manufacturers of browsing, screen-reading or any other web technologies. We are neutral.
- Pipeline Software Development will not take kindly to people ripping off sections off the site and passing it off as their own. However, if you would like to re-work anything here - perhaps there is a something that you would like to translate to another language - then just contact us. We are reasonable people. All we would ask is for a credit for having been so kind and sharing.
- Pipeline Software Development doesn't like long legal statements.
End of disclaimer.
Privacy policy
This is also linked to on each of the site's pages.
Our privacy policy is simple. If you give us your e-mail address for any reason:
- We promise we will never pass your e-mail address on to anyone, no matter what.
- We won't get in contact with you over trivial matters - only to let you know when there has been a significant update to this site or a significant article on Ryan's blog has been submitted.
- We will not store any unnecessary personal data about you - any surveys that may appear will only be for our own use in ascertaining your preferences and thoughts on this site.
- Cookies are only used for non-personal data. Currently, cookies are only used to store your display preferences. If there is any change in this, it will be detailed on this page.
- All information about you is stored in a secure remote location (the other side of the globe to be precise) and this information is never downloaded to any local environment. All the information stored about users has been submitted by users with their permission. An email was sent at the time detailing exactly what was stored.
- Every so often you will be asked to update your information or if you want the information stored about you destroyed.
If this does not address any concerns you may have, please contact us with your concerns.
Both the legal disclaimer and the privacy policy have been edited since the implementation of the data capture methods. I am fully persuaded that the web site conforms to the Data Protection Act.
On the next page you will see how I, as a web manager, have monitored performance and carried out regular routine site maintenance over a period of 8 weeks.