Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be used to easily affect the appearance of an entire page or even affect an entire website if used as an external reference. They can be used to enhance accessibility.

What are the potential problems posed by style sheets?
Style sheets can enable users to define specific viewing preferences to accommodate their disability. For instance, users with low vision may create their own style sheet so that, regardless of what web pages they visit, all text is displayed in an extra large font with white characters on a black background. If designers set up their pages to override user-defined style sheets, people with disabilities may not be able to use those pages. For good access, therefore, it is critical that designers ensure that their web pages do not interfere with user-defined style sheets.

In general, the "safest" and most useful form of style sheets are "external" style sheets, in which the style rules are set up in a separate file. An example of an external style sheet is:

Example of source code: <link rel=stylesheet type="text / css" href="section508.css>

Quick Tips

• Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets. For example, when an HTML document is rendered without associated style sheets, it must still be possible to read the document.

• If you use CSS for Positioning in your HTML document, it is imperative that the physical order of the items is the same as the logical order on the page. Browsers and screen readers that do not support CSS-P will render the page in the physical order and not in logical order.

• To disable style sheets in a browser:
  • In IE: Tools - Internet Options - Accessibility - Formatting: check "Ignore colors specified on web pages," "Ignore font styles specified on web pages," "Ignore font sizes specified on web pages". To use a user defined style sheet check "Format documents using my style sheet". A browse to find your style sheet.

  • In Netscape: Edit - Preferences - Appearance - Fonts - Colors (choose your desired options).

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