Courion Corporation and Accessibility

Courion’s Enterprise Suite is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of users, including those with disabilities. To that end, Courion is incorporating into its design methodology and its product implementations software technologies that enable Courion and the technical staff of its customers to provide the appropriate level of usability for its web-based software suite by individuals with disabilities.

The Enterprise Suite’s accessibility features include:

• Fonts, font sizes, colors and other visual display elements that are fully customizable to meet the needs of the viewer. The customization is done through the use of style sheets and may be done on an as-needed basis for each individual user. While style sheets are available for format customization, they are not required for displaying the product: documents are organized so that they can be read without an associated style sheet.
• Most information is conveyed through plain text:
  • The use of icons is minimized; where icons are used to identify controls or convey status, help or other information, the meaning assigned to those icons is consistent throughout the product suite.
  • Images other than icons are used only sparingly and then only to improve the visual attractiveness of the site. Images which are not icons do not convey any information that the user needs to know in order to use the product.
• Standard HTML is used to generate table formats so that screen magnification users can associate row and column headers with data elements. Standard HTML is used throughout the product and industry best practices associated with the use of that HTML are followed.
• Text equivalents for non-text elements are provided through the “alt” attribute of the HTML image tab, and may be modified by the customer as appropriate.
• There are no text or objects that blink or flash. The user does not need to disable any such text or objects, nor is there a need for alternative text for information presented via flashing or blinking. Similarly, neither animation nor multimedia is used to convey information to the user.
• There is no audio component to the product suite. Hearing impaired or deaf users will be able to use the software easily and without making any changes to the product.
• It is a design goal of the product to be easy to use for all users, not just disabled ones, and Courion follows best design practices in its products:
  • The need for keystrokes is kept to a minimum.
  • Information is conveyed via text that is written to be simple, clear and straightforward.
  • Most pages have relatively few fields requiring data entry. The tab order through the fields is through the intuitively obvious route.

Courion’s goal is to provide products that are broadly accessible. With regular review of our products and regular improvements to our software development methodologies, we look forward to meeting the needs of all users.