National Archives Catalog - Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities

PDF Version

We are committed to ensuring that the National Archives Catalog is accessible to all its users. This website has been developed to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (as amended). Listed below are several of the capabilities provided for accessibility in the National Archives Catalog.

• Skip to Links
• Text Size
• Keyboard Controls
• Accessible Rich Internet Application
• Limitations of Archival Content
• Contact Us

Skip to Links

Located at the top left of each page of the website, "skip to” links allow users to quickly skip to the content or navigation sections of the page. This feature may be helpful if you are using a screen magnifier or speech browser, or are viewing the site on a small screen.

Text Size

If you find the text on this site too small or too big, you can change it using your browser menu. The default size of most browsers is "medium" or "normal". The text on our pages can be made larger by doing the following on each of our supported browsers:

Internet Explorer v7.0 and v8.0

1. Select the Page menu
2. Select Text Size
3. Select your choice of Largest, Larger, Medium, Smaller, Smallest text sizes

Firefox v3.5.x and v3.6.x

1. Select the View menu
2. Select Zoom
3. Select the Text Size Only option
4. Select the View menu again
5. Select Zoom In or Zoom Out to get the desired text size or, alternatively, select and hold the ‘Ctrl’ button on your keyboard along with ‘ + ’ to increase the text size or ‘ - ’ to decrease the text size. ‘Ctrl’ and ‘0’ returns the text to the default size.

Chrome v5

Chrome v5 does not provide a means to change only text size. The entire page can be made larger by doing the following:

1. Select the Document icon on your browser
2. Select the Zoom option
3. Select Larger or Smaller to get the desired text size or, alternatively, select and hold the ‘Ctrl’ button on your keyboard along with ‘ + ’ to increase the text size or ‘ - ’ to decrease the text size. ‘Ctrl’ and ‘0’ returns the text to the default size.

Keyboard Controls

Some versions of the Microsoft Windows Media Player installed with Windows XP are limited in their keyboard control accessibility. A newer version of the plugin is known to have more accessible keyboard controls.

Accessible Rich Internet Application

To provide an accessible user experience to people with disabilities, assistive technologies need to be able to interact with these controls. The National Archives Catalog search interface uses the WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications or ARIA) W3C Web standard for enhancing and supporting accessibility of dynamically visible (“aria-hidden”) content. Newer browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 or later and Firefox 3 or later are required by ARIA.

Limitations of Archival Content

The National Archives Catalog both links to and collects electronic records in a variety of formats from a variety of sources. Some of the archival content may not be fully accessible. Where NARA provides digital copies of records (e.g., documents, photographs, films, etc.), we also provide archival catalog descriptions of those records. If you require a transcript of a film or sound recording, or additional information about the records, please contact us.

Contact Us

If you are a person with a disability and have trouble using our website — or if you experience difficulty using any of our services, products, or facilities — please tell us about the problem. You may:

• Send us an e-mail message:   catalog@nara.gov
• Write to us at:
  
  National Archives and Records Administration
  Digital Public Access Branch
  8601 Adelphi Road
  College Park
  Maryland 20740-6001
  
  
• Telephone us on our TDD lines:   301-837-0482
• Fax your comments to us:   301-837-0319