HELP
The Assembly of WEU has taken note of the millions of people in Europe who are visually impaired and have limited access to written texts and parliamentary debates. It has therefore made every effort to improve access to its Website for the visually impaired, the blind and those wanting greater visual comfort.
We have made it possible for users to personalise the size and colour of the texts, backgrounds and fonts. The pages are designed to be read with traditional Web browsers as well as with Braille readers and “text-to-speech” tools for the visually impaired.
The Website design takes account of the majority of the recommendations of the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as well those of the French Government (Référentiel accessibilité des services Internet de l'administration française - ADAE). These technical recommendations suggest how websites can be made more accessible, especially for those with special needs or specialised tools.
For instance, we have made the following improvements to the Website to facilitate access to its contents:
- The size of the fonts is relative so that the text size can be increased or reduced using your browser options
- It is possible to navigate through the Website without the use of a mouse (see also the list of keyboard shortcuts below)
- The page layout is created through a style sheet (avoiding the use of tables) to ensure that the order in which the information is accessed remains correct
- The style sheet (CSS) is external to the pages so that users can substitute it with their own style sheet.
PRACTICAL HELP
To increase the font size of the text in Internet Explorer (version 4 or higher) select the View menu of the browser followed by Text Size, then select a larger size.
To increase the font size of the text in Firefox (Mozilla) select the View menu of the browser followed by Text Size, then select Increase. The same effect can be obtained by holding down "Ctrl" and "+" down at the same time.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts enable you to navigate to the most common pages of the Website, such as the Home page. See the full list below:
| Keyboard shortcut |
Function |
1 |
Access to the Home page |
3 |
Access to the Site Map |
4 |
Access to the Search page |
6 |
Access to the Help page |
7 |
Access to the Contact page |
The use of Keyboard Shortcuts varies greatly between Browsers and Operating Systems and it is not supported by all Browsers.
The table below gives an overview of the Key Combinations for a number of popular combinations of Browser and Operating Systems.
Support for Keyboard Shortcuts for the most popular Browsers.
| Operating System |
Browser |
Key Combination(s) |
| PC Windows |
Internet Explorer 4 and higher |
ALT + Keyboard Shortcut (to position yourself on the link) + ENTER to activate the link |
| PC Windows |
Mozilla |
ALT + Keyboard Shortcut |
| PC Windows |
Netscape 6 and higher |
ALT + Keyboard Shortcut |
| PC Windows |
Opera 7 |
SHIFT + ESCAPE + Keyboard Shortcut |
| MAC OS 9 |
Internet Explorer 4 & 4.5 |
No support |
| MAC OS 9 |
Mozilla |
No support |
| MAC OS 9 |
Netscape 4 |
No support |
| MAC OS 9 |
Opera |
No support |
| MAC OS X |
Internet Explorer 5 & 5.1 |
CTRL + COMMAND (only with certain versions of the OS) + Keyboard Shortcut |
| MAC OS X |
Mozilla |
No support |
| MAC OS X |
Netscape 6 and higher |
CTRL + Keyboard Shortcut |
| MAC OS X |
Opera |
No support |
| MAC OS X |
Safari |
No support |
PDF Documents
The Website contains documents in PDF format (for download or viewing), to guarantee page layout when printing.
If you do not already have Acrobat Reader, it can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website:
download Acrobat Reader.
PDF file standards have improved over the years and have become more accessible through technologies like screen readers, navigation through the keyboard and enhanced screen viewing. The Adobe site provides information on how best to use these features. You may come across earlier versions of PDF files which are not so readily accessible.
