Accessibility Statement

The Children’s Miracle Network Canada site has been designed to be easy to navigate using a keyboard only. Using a combination of the tab key and keyboard arrows, site visitors can move through the site without the use of a mouse or trackpad. We’ve also made sure that when navigating through the links and input form fields using the tab key, the element that has keyboard focus has a visible highlight around the element.

Keyboard navigation also supports screen reader users as well. In addition to basic keyboard navigation, we have also added screen reader only Aria and other markup to make forms and links more accessible.

Note: Some screen readers will have other key combinations used for navigating the site via the keyboard.

We’ve designed the site to be informative and engaging, but also simple to navigate and understand. We made sure that the site has a simple and consistent header and footer structure, so visitors will be able to easily understand and navigate between pages on the site.

We’ve worked to ensure that the purpose of all links on the site is clear so visitors will know where each link goes before you click on it. Whenever possible the link destination, will be clear from both the link or button text and the content immediately above where the link appears.

Wherever the link or button text may not be easily understood out of context we’ve added a ‘title tag’, ’label’ or other accessible markup to provide additional contextual for those visiting the site using assistive devices.

External website links are identified with both a visual icon and screen reader friendly markup to indicate that the link is ‘external’ to our site and will open in a new browser window.

If you are viewing this site on a mobile phone or tablet the site will automatically adjust the screen display to fit your mobile Phone or tablet. In addition many browsers, when viewed on touch screen devices will allow enlarging a portion a website using a touch gesture.

You can also adjust the magnification of this website by adjusting the font size or zoom setting on your browser or operating system, or by expanding or reducing the width of the browser window. The layout of the site will adjust to optimize display at higher or lower zoom setting or at narrower widths.

All content images on the site include ALT attributes.

For images that are meaningful to enhance your understanding of the content of the site, we’ve added alternative text descriptions. These descriptions (alternative text attributes) replace the information that would be conveyed by images for visitors using screen readers or when the images are turned off.

When the images are decorative only or if an image description would only duplicate content already available as text, we have hidden those images from screen readers or when images are turned off. Those images have empty ALT attributes in the mark up so they are not presented to screen reader users.

The web site does not include content or functionality which relies on colour alone to convey key information.

All forms are keyboard accessible, and can be easily used on a touch screen or with a keyboard only.

To improve site accessibility for visitors using screen readers who may not be able to see the form ‘placeholder content’ in input forms or buttons, we have added extra markup accessible to screen readers to ensure labels and form instructions are accessible.

When needed to add extra context user instructions and information helpful to visitors using screen readers we have added additional labeling and instructions available for screen readers only.

We’ve worked hard to make our website usable and accessible to everyone following best practices and WCAG guidelines, no site is ever 100% accessible for everyone.

Some of our content and site functionality is dependent on external formats, tools or plugins that enhance the overall functionality and available features on the site but do have some barriers to accessibility.

To make our site more useful and interactive for all our visitors we have integrated social media and other popular interactive and media sharing widgets (including Facebook, Twitter and Flicker). We cannot guarantee that these third party tools will necessarily conform to web accessibility standards.

We continue to develop our website, and encourage your feedback and recommendations to improve the site. As well, if you have questions or are having trouble accessing information on the site please contact the Children’s Miracle Network Canada office by email at info@childrenshospitals.ca or by phone at (905) 265 9750 and we would be happy to assist you.