The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) provides a list of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility. This list was produced as a part of the Web Accessibility Initiative. There are three levels of priorities for web developers. A web content developer MUST satisfy the first priority as a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use web documents. A web developer should satisfy Priority 2 checkpoints to allow access to additional user groups. In addition, a developer may satisfy the Priority 3 checkpoints to improve access to some types of web documents.

The Woodland School District 50 web site is developed using standard html coding and is designed to satisfy all of Priority 1 checkpoints including:

• Text equivalents provided for graphic elements and image maps
• Use of web-safe colors, use of easy to read colors, use of standard white backgrounds
• Use of standard fonts and headers for emphasis
• No flashing and/or scrolling text
• No content requiring additional plugins
• Clear and simple language and layouts
• Client-side image maps
• Data in tables clearly labeled
• No frames in site design
• No applets
• Multimedia used only where appropriate

The Woodland School District 50 web site also addresses the checkpoints in Priority 2:

• Foreground and background combinations provide good contrast. We use standard white backgrounds and black lettering in most cases.
• Use of graphic elements is limited. Text only version of graphic intensive home page is provided.
• Spell check and grammar review is done on web pages.
• Relative links are used for our site navigation in all cases except for links to external database elements or other web sites.
• Appropriate web page titles and headers provide information to search engines and robots.
• Lists are used rather than indentation
• Dynamic content is served from databases and appears on web pages as standard text.
• Auto-refreshing techniques are not used.
• Additional windows are not opened on our site
• Link targets are identified.
• Navigation mechanisms are consistent
• Web forms are properly labeled.

We also address several checkpoints in Priority 3:

• We provide additional means for users to receive information (example: Special Delivery email)
• We group features on our internet site according to user type: Parents, Staff, Students      
• We place distinguishing information at the beginning of each web page.
• We have a search engine allowing users to locate information quickly.
• We make many of our text-intensive information available in Adobe pdf format so that site users may print out formatted documents for review.

We are particularly sensitive to the needs of our users. We respond to every email sent to webmaster and almost always within 24 hours. We act upon suggestions for improvement and respond when the improvement has been made (usually within a day or two). We want our web content to be accessible to all of our community.

If you have concerns and/or suggestions for improvement, please contact webmaster@dist50.net with the web address of the referring page so that we may correct the problem.