Applets and Plugins
Some web content on University websites require additional software or "plugins" in order to be viewed. Below is a list of the most common applets and plugins with links for downloading.
FLV - Adobe Flash
View Flash movies and other interactive Flash content with Adobe Flash Player.
PDF - Adobe Reader
View Portable Document Format (PDF) files with Adobe Reader.
MOV - Apple QuickTime
View Apple QuickTime movies and other interactive content with Apple QuickTime.
DOC or DOCX - Microsoft Word
View and edit Microsoft Word documents with the latest version of the Open Office suite. Microsoft’s Word Viewer will view, print, and copy Word documents, but cannot be used to edit them.
XLS or XLSX - Microsoft Excel
View and edit Microsoft Excel workbooks with the latest version of the Open Office suite. Microsoft’s Excel Viewer will view, print, and copy Excel workbooks, but cannot be used to edit them.
PPT or PPTX - Microsoft PowerPoint
View and edit Microsoft PowerPoint presentations with the latest version of the Open Office suite. Microsoft’s PowerPoint Viewer will view, print, and copy PowerPoint presentations, but cannot be used to edit them.
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack
By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats in newer versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
JAVA - Java Runtime Environment
Installing Java allows you to run certain internet applications that require the Java Runtime Environment.
Did you know?
- In the United States, about 55 million people have a disability (src: 2010 U.S. Census).
- About 1 in 5 Americans have some kind of disability (src: 2010 U.S. Census).
- The percentage of people affected by disabilities is growing as our population ages.
- Two popular, free screen readers are VoiceOver (Mac OS and iOS) and NVDA (Win).
- Good accessibility practices can improve the search ranking of your website.
- Form fields without labels can cause problems for some assistive technology users.
- Low color contrast makes content difficult to see, especially for users with low vision.
- Documents linked on a website need to be accessible too (e.g., PDF and Word files).
- Audio content, like podcasts, need transcripts for deaf or hard of hearing users.
- Online videos should be captioned for deaf or hard of hearing users.
- Using HTML tags correctly is very important for accessibility.
- Descriptive link text helps make a website more accessible. Avoid using "Click here" or "Read more."
- A "screen reader" is an application that reads content aloud to a user.
- There is no "alt tag" in HTML. "Alt" is an attribute used with the img tag.
- HTML uses the alt attribute to provide a text description of an image.
- Alt text should describe an image, if the purpose of the image is to convey information.
- If an image is a link, the alt text for the image should explain where the link goes.
- If an image is only being used for decoration, the alt text should be null (i.e., alt="").
- If a table has headers, using header tags (<th>) will make the table more accessible.
- An accessible website is one that can be navigated and understood by everyone.