Accessibility

The American Psychological Association (APA) is committed to ensuring that our websites are accessible to the widest possible audiences, including those with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities. This statement outlines our ongoing approach to making APA websites accessible to all user groups, including ways in which text and color adjustments can be made and what to do if you have feedback or questions.

APA websites aspire to meet the standards set forth in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI). APA websites make a concerted effort to conform to the WCAG Priority 2 level, which removes significant barriers to accessing websites and documents.

Our current accessibility features include: 

• Alternative (alt) text detail for appropriate images and other nontext elements; 

• Title attributes for additional information about links and indication of new browser windows; 

• Structural markup language to indicate headings and lists to aid in page comprehension; 

• Association of forms with labels; 

• Association of all data cells in a data table with their headers; 

• JavaScript and style sheets to enhance the appearance and functionality of the site; 

• PDF files being created with accessibility features enabled (beginning with those posted since late 2008); 

• Sufficiently contrasting colors to satisfy screen readers; 

• Nonflickering imagery and screens; 

• Contact information available on every screen; and 

• Links with title attributes or descriptive targets, written to make sense out of context. Link text is not duplicated.

As APA begins including more multimedia applications — including video — on our websites, we hope to provide closed captioning or audio descriptions in the future. Some videos already have transcripts available.

APA webpages are designed for optimal viewing in the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox and Apple's Safari. These browsers provide features to make web content more accessible, including changing font sizes and screen colors for greater accessibility.

• Accessibility features in IE 8

• Accessibility features in IE 9

• Mozilla accessibility features 

• Safari accessibility features

Changing Font Sizes

The following keyboard shortcuts control text size in IE, Firefox and Safari:

• Press Ctrl + + (plus sign) to increase the text size. 

• Press Ctrl + - (minus sign) to decrease the text size. 

• Press Ctrl + 0 (zero) to reset the text size to the webpage's default size.

Internet Explorer also provides a way to increase font size via style sheets. To do so, open IE, select Tools from the menu bar, and then select Internet Options. On the General tab, click Accessibility and check Ignore font sizes specified on webpages. Click OK, and then close the Internet Options window. Select View from the menu bar, choose Text Size and select from Smallest to Largest.

Mozilla Firefox allows you to temporarily change the size of text on any webpage in the View > Zoom menu, with Zoom Text Only enabled.

Safari allows you to temporarily change the size of text on the View menu, where you can choose Zoom Text Only. You can force Safari to always display larger text sizes by going to Edit > Preferences > Advanced and checking "Never use font sizes smaller than" and entering a size. Apple recommends starting with 12 or 14.

Changing Screen Colors

Internet Explorer allows screen colors to be changed for greater visual contrast. Follow these steps to choose the fonts and screen colors that will be used for websites that do not specify those settings.

• Open Internet Explorer.

• Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

• To change the font, click the General tab, and then click Fonts.

• Specify the fonts you want to use, and then click OK.

• To change the colors used, click the General tab, and then click Colors.

• Clear the Use Windows colors check box, and then select the colors you want to use. When you are finished selecting colors, click OK.

If you want the fonts and colors you specify in Internet Explorer to be used for all websites, regardless of the fonts that have been set by the website designer, follow these steps: 

• Open Internet Explorer. 

• Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options. 

• Click the General tab, and then click Accessibility. 

• Check all three boxes under Formatting: Ignore colors specified on webpages, Ignore font styles specified on webpages and Ignore font sizes specified on webpages check boxes, then click OK.

Mozilla Firefox allows you to set your default colors by going to Tools > Options, selecting the Content panel, and clicking the Colors button in the Fonts & Colors section. You can set default text and background colors, as well as default colors for visited and unvisited hyperlinks. You can also specify whether hyperlinks should be underlined. If your choices have no effect, you may override the colors defined by webpages by unchecking the option "Allow pages to choose their own colors instead of my selections above."

Safari allows you to set your default fonts by going to Edit > Preferences > Appearance. Select your fonts and close the box when you're done.

As APA continues to improve the accessibility of our websites, we will reflect any changes in this accessibility statement to communicate our progress.

We value your opinions. If you have comments, questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of the site, please contact us.

Internet Explorer provides a straightforward way to increase font size via style sheets. To do so, open IE, select "Tools" from the menu bar, and then select "Internet Options". Next select "Accessibility" and check "Ignore font sizes" specified on webpages. Click "OK", and then close the Internet Options window. Select "View" from the menu bar, choose "Text Size" and select from "Smallest" to "Largest".

The following keyboard shortcuts control text size:

• Press Ctrl + + (plus sign) to increase the text size.

• Press Ctrl + - (minus sign) to decrease the text size.

• Press Ctrl + 0 (zero) to reset the text size to the webpage's default size.

Mozilla Firefox allows you to temporarily change the size of text on any webpage in the "View" > "Zoom" menu, with "Zoom Text Only" enabled.

The following keyboard shortcuts control text size:

• Press Ctrl + + (plus sign) to increase the text size.

• Press Ctrl + - (minus sign) to decrease the text size.

• Press Ctrl + 0 (zero) to reset the text size to the webpage's default size.

Internet Explorer allows for screen colors to be changed allowing for greater visual contrast. Follow these steps to choose the fonts and screen colors that will be used for websites that do not specify those settings.

• Open Internet Explorer.

• Click the "Tools" button, and then click "Internet Options".

• To change the font, click the "General" tab, and then click "Fonts".

• Specify the fonts you want to use, and then click "OK".

• To change the colors used, click the "General' tab, and then click "Colors".

• Clear the "Use Windows" colors check box, and then select the colors you want to use. When you are finished selecting colors, click OK.

If you want to have the fonts and colors you specify in Internet Explorer be used for all websites, regardless of the fonts that have been set by the website designer, follow these steps:

• Open Internet Explorer.

• Click the "Tools" button, and then click "Internet Options".

• Click the "General" tab, and then click "Accessibility".

• Check all three boxes under "Formatting": "Ignore colors specified on webpages", "Ignore font styles specified on webpages" and "Ignore font sizes specified on webpages check boxes", then click "OK".

Mozilla Firefox allows you to set your default colors by going to Tools > Options, selecting the "Content panel", and clicking the "Colors" button in the "Fonts & Colors" section. You can set default text and background colors, as well as default colors for visited and unvisited hyperlinks. You can also specify whether hyperlinks should be underlined. If your choices have no effect, you may override the colors defined by webpages by unchecking the option to Allow pages to choose their own colors instead of my selections above.

As the APA continues to improve the accessibility of our websites, we will reflect any changes in this accessibility statement to communicate our progress.

We value your opinions. If you have comments, questions, or suggestions regarding the accessibility of the site, please contact us.