Certain web design techniques have been implemented to make this web site more usable for people who use non-graphical web browsers. Some of these techniques also benefit people who use regular browsers.
In browsers that support access keys, you can use keyboard shortcuts to hit certain links on the pages. In Macintosh, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the access key. On a PC, hold down the Alt key while pressing the access key. If it doesn't work, that means that your browser doesn't support access keys.
Access keys available from pages that have the site-wide top-level navigation links:
Additional access keys available from hikes pages:
When browsing slides in the photo albums:
Always a moving target for me. I do the best I can to write XHTML code that validates (I do make mistakes), and to write semantically valid code that displays meaningfully and nicely in text browsers, old browsers and newer browsers. Because I focus on forward compatibility, the web site will look a little more plain in older browsers than newer ones, but content and functionality will not suffer.
Besides writing standards compliant code, there are numerous accessibility standards and practices. Validating adherence to them is difficult at best because many of these practices are judgement calls. I have done my best and strive to improve. Probably my best achievement has been to ensure that this web site looks and works well in Lynx, a text-only browser.
In addition to access keys, text-only browsers should see extra navigational aids at the top of each page, including a link to jump to the second-level, "In this section" sub-navigation.
All text can be resized. Some browsers have buttons to increase or decrease the text size. Others have menu options in the View or other browser menus. Your eye-sight won't suffer using this web site when you use your browser's options to resize text.
Some parts of the site have images mostly for decorative purposes. Other parts of the site, such as the topo maps, the flowers section, or the photo albums, use images as the main form of communication for the content. Images in these parts of the web site will probably not have as much helpful information available to users who view the site without images as would be ideal. For that I apologize because I don't think I know how to adequately describe some of the images (such as topo maps), or my scripting abilities limit my ability to put in meaningful descriptions (flowers and slides). However, for the latter two, there are captions and descriptions that may still be of value.
Is now a book!
My trail journal from Santa Barbara to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail
My trail journal on the Pacific Crest Trail