Accessibility Statement The Houston Council of the Blind recognizes the needs of people with disabilities to use the Houston Council of the Blind Web Site and designs web pages to be usable. The Houston Council of the Blind strives to create and maintain web pages and services that meet the guidelines set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) as well as the Rehabilitation Act of 1998, Section 508. The Houston Council of the Blind also recognizes that, in part, accessibility is a measure of how easy it is to load, navigate, read and understand the content of a website. To that end the web site design utilizes the principles of Usable Design. Principles include the following: The site is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. The site accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities Use of the site is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. The site communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities. The site minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. The site can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue. The use of accessibility standards will ensure that the web sites serve the largest audience possible. Compliance with these standards also provides an added benefit to those users with text-based browsers, low-end processors, slow modem connections and/or no multi-media capabilities on their computer. It also allows for access to the Houston Council of the Blind web site by new technologies, such as WebTV, Internet capable phones, and personal organizers and other portable devices with Internet connectivity. While we are committed to making our Web site accessible to any and all users, we recognize that not all pages may be compliant at this time due to detection software inadequacies, the large size of the site, and/or the limited availability or high cost of alternative forms of service. The Houston Council of the Blind, nonetheless, will continue to test this Web Site and remains committed to maintaining and improving its compliance in order to serve the widest possible audience. For more information on Accessibility, consulting, training and advocacy go to Knowbility.org