Chapter 16: Accessibility Options

Making Internet Explorer Accessible

Internet Explorer 6.0, which comes with Windows XP, has additional accessibility features you can use:

• Keyboard Press TAB and SHIFT-TAB to cycle among the active parts of the Internet Explorer window, including links and buttons. The selected item is highlighted with a dotted-line box.
• Display Internet Explorer can use the font sizes and formatting you choose, even if they are different from those specified in the Web page.

To choose other accessibility options, choose Tools | Internet Options on the Internet Explorer menu bar and click the Advanced tab. In the list of settings that appears, you can select or deselect these settings:

• Always Expand ALT Text For Images (in the Accessibility section) Turn this setting on to display the entire ALT (alternative) text supplied on some Web pages as captions for pictures, so a screen reader can read the caption.
• Move System Caret With Focus/Selection Changes (in the Accessibility section) Turn this on so the cursor moves along with the mouse pointer and a screen reader or magnifier program can read or display the right part of the Internet Explorer window.
• Enable Page Transitions, Use Smooth Scrolling (in the Browsing section) Turn these off to make screen readers and voice recognition programs work better.
• Play Animations In Web Pages, Play Videos In Web Pages, Show Pictures (in the Multimedia section) Turn these off if your vision is impaired and you want to speed up Web browsing.
• Play Sounds In Web Pages (in the Multimedia section) Turn this off if sounds are annoying or interfere with your screen reading program.
• Print Background Colors and Images (in the Printing section) Turn this off for clearer printouts.