Accessibility
Table of contents
- About the accessibility page
- How to use this page
- Generic layout of page elements
- Navigation menus and search
- Navigation strategies
1. About the accessibility page
This page contains information concerning the newly redesigned organization and structure of the Statistics Canada website, the different elements contained within a page, and information on navigation strategies. This information is of a general nature, and thus avoids outlining any specific features of particular operating systems, web browsers or adaptive technologies.
2. How to use this page
Users can access this page by activating the "Accessibility" link located within the “Site utility menu: 2 of 2”. This link may also be recognizable in the blue bar of buttons displayed at the top of the page.
To navigate back and forth between previously visited pages, you must use the Back or Forward buttons on the menu bar of your browser or, alternatively, the Alt+Left arrow or the Alt+Right arrow keys that are often assigned these functions. For instance, you may wish to review the information on the accessibility page and then continue your visit on the Statistics Canada website.
You can consult the different sections on this page by activating the link to the corresponding subject in the table of contents. Each section is identified by a second-level heading or h2. These may be followed by subsections that are identified by lower-level headings (h3, h4 and so on).
At the end of each section is a link that allows you to return to the top of this page. This link is represented by an arrow pointing upwards entitled "Top of page." You can then activate the link entitled “Skip content; go to navigation and search (includes accessibility information) ” to consult the navigation menus, or move past it to return to the table of contents.
Some screen reader applications offer a list of all the available links on a page or all available page headings (h1, h2, and etcetera). After activating the desired list which presents itself within a dialog box, you can choose to go directly to the that interests you by activating Enter for the item you have selected.
3. Generic layout of page elements
All page elements in Statistics Canada’s website are developed according to a standard model. At the top of each page is a link to “Skip content; go to navigation and search (includes accessibility information)” which is hidden from view (unless style sheets are disabled or if you are using a non-standards compliant browser). This link has been added to assist screen reader users in accessing the available page navigation menus.
The content of the page comes next, beginning with a first-level heading (h1) identifying the subject of the page. The end of all page content will sometimes be followed by the section navigation menu (or right-hand navigation menu). This menu should contain links to content related information and may or may not be labelled with a heading.
Next is the page footer where you will find the date the page was last modified (Date modified), and a list of two hyperlinks: Important notices and Top of page.
The last section of the page contains all the available navigation menus and search form (Navigation and search), with the exception of the section navigation menu (or right-hand navigation menu).
4. Navigation menus and search
Statistics Canada web pages will contain four navigation menus and the site search utility. These are laid out in the following order and are grouped using headings (h1, h2 and etcetera):
- Page navigation menu
- Site navigation menu
- Site utility menu: 1 of 2
- Site utility menu: 2 of 2
- Site search
The following descriptions of the navigation menus and search utility also include their visual positioning on a page. When style sheets are disabled or a non-standards compliant browser is used, all hidden items will be displayed in a text-only format. Both the text-only and default formats present the layout of the page in the same way to screen reader users.
Page navigation menu
The page navigation menu is hidden from view and contains hyperlinks to the submenus in this section and also includes links to Page content, Site search, Important notices and a link that brings you back to the top of the page (Top of page).
Site navigation menu
The site navigation menu is displayed on the left side of the page (sometimes referred to as the left-hand navigation menu) and contains a list of hyperlinks to all of the major modules on the Statistics Canada website. The content of this menu may change to a contextual navigation menu (similar to the section navigation menu) depending on the web module visited.
Site utility menus
The site utility menus are displayed at the top of the page in two horizontal rows: Site utility menu: 1 of 2 and Site utility menu: 2 of 2. These menus contain a list of hyperlinks to information that will assist visitors in using the site more effectively, about what Statistics Canada does, how to contact us and a link to the Canada site.
Site search
The website search form follows the secondary site navigation menus on all but the application pages. On certain module-specific pages, the scope of the search will be narrowed to only include pages within the module.
For a site-wide search, activate the “Search” button in Site utility menu: 1 of 2.
5. Navigation strategies
This section describes the principal navigation elements contained in Statistics Canada’s web pages. These strategies allow screen reader users to move quickly through a page to the section of interest.
How to access page content
There are multiple ways a user can quickly access the content on a Statistics Canada web page.
Each page begins with a link entitled “Skip content; go to navigation and search (includes accessibility information)”. Users can move past this link and find themselves at the beginning of the page content.
Alternatively, the "Show all links" command, that may be available in some screen readers, can be accessed to quickly activate the “Page content” hyperlink.
Some screen reader software may allow users to jump directly to headings of various levels. All page content on the Statistics Canada site will begin with a first-level heading (h1) and only one will be available per page.
Users may also have the option of moving through the headings in the order in which the browser presents them. For example, pressing the "H" key may move the cursor to the next heading in the document.
For more information on these functions, please refer to your screen reader’s help menu or contact your software provider for further details.
Navigation and search
Note: This page contains several navigation menus. To enhance accessibility, most of these menus and the site search box are grouped in this section.
To find out more about accessibility features on our site, read our accessibility page.