How to Use This Website

Great care was taken to make sure this website is as accessible as possible.  Accessibility on a website can mean many different things. Described below are several features on this website to make it more accessible.

NAVIGATION and SPECIAL TOOLS

This website has a lot of navigational redundancy built in, to accommodate many preferences.  The menus at the top are also mirrored on the left.  These may display differently depending on the website version you've chosen.  Both menus will also display the "active" menu.  In the image on the left, the HOME menu is active (and therefore, the current menu).  This is shown by the teal colored background in the top menu and the same teal color of the word "HOME" in the left menu.  

PATHWAY - In addition to the menus and active menu highlighting, each page contains a "pathway" which will show you where in the site you are.  In the picture on the left, the little word "HOME" above the Welcome title shows that you are on the Home page.  If you were on the Block of the Month page, however, this pathway would say:

HOME - Projects - Block of the Month

TEXT SIZE ADJUSTMENTS - You may increase the text size on the website by clicking on the tools above the main website menu.  A+ increases the text size, while A- decreases the size.  Reset returns the site to the default text size.  

PRINT AND EMAIL - On most of the content on the site, you'll see two little buttons on the right, Print and Email.  Any article on the site may be emailed to a friend, much like you'd find on other popular websites, by filling out a little pop-up form.  Try it out and send yourself an article! 

The PRINT button will format any individual article for printing.   First, a small window will pop up with the cleaned up content.  Then you just need to press the print button on that little window to invoke your printer. 

On many pages, you'll also find a PDF button, meaning you can automatically generate a PDF of that page by clicking the PDF button!

SEARCH - At the top of every page, you'll find a search box.  Type anything related to Calico Cut-Ups in this box and it will return a list of appropriate links, just like Google. 

OPEN SOURCE and COMPLIANCE

This website is proudly built using Open Source scripts.  In addition, it was designed to meet W3C standards for CSS Level 2.1 and XHTML 1.0 validation.  If you happen to be a nerd (like the developer of this site) or otherwise interested in what this means, you may read more about validation at this link.  In a nutshell: validation is the process of making sure your website conforms to standards set by various organizations and ultimately helps to make sure your website is interpreted appropriately and uniformly by various internet browser and computers combinations.  Click on the images below to verify this site is valid:

This site also complies with US Federal 508.A  accessibility compliance.  You may learn more about 508 accessibility at this link .  508 compliance ensures that people with disabilities, such as those who use audio reader software to browse the internet, will be able to access and experience a website.