Accessibility in Opera
Accessibility is a very important aspect of the Internet today. As more and more people of all nationalities, cultures and religions come on-line, the importance of following the Web standards have never been greater. One of the basics of the Internet is that it is supposed to be accessible to all. Opera is better than other Internet browsers with regards to accessibility on a number of key points.
Complying with standards
Opera Software prides itself on its stringent implementations of the official standards created and maintained amongst others bye the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the European Computer Makers Association, and we are confident that this approach has helped greatly in making the Opera Internet browser what it is today.
Accessibility preferences
Under "File/Preferences", there's a category of "Accessibility" that lists some of the most important accessibility options for people with visual disabilities. The menu allows you to toggle menu style item selection in the Hotlist window and underlining links in this window, as well as enabling screen reader compatible menus, which is great if you are using a screen reader application.
This is only the menu that contains the most specific features for people with disabilities - there are many more options that can be used, and not only by people with disabilities.
Keyboard access
Opera allows for keyboard access in all levels of the program. From start to finish, there is no need to use the mouse if you do not wish to use the mouse. The program offers keyboard shortcuts on almost all actions, and has context-sensitive menus that are easily accessible throughout the program. This very Help contains a list of all the keyboard shortcuts in Opera. Please go to the keyboard shortcuts page for the complete list.
Configurability
Opera is a highly configurable Internet browser, enabling users to selectively turn on and off a number of things, through the use of the menus in Opera or even through the use of Opera's keyboard shortcuts or the mouse, such as:
- Images
- Scripting languages
- Plug-ins
- Frames
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
In addition to this, Opera allows the users to select the size of their cache settings, cookie handling and lets you save the windows that are open in Opera when you exit the program, for your convenience.
Zooming of documents
Opera allows users to zoom in and out of entire Web pages, not just changing the size the font(s) used in the Web page. This zooming feature includes images, through the use of Opera's unique image handling techniques, making the browser highly accessible to users with visual disabilities. The default scaling of Web pages can also be selected.
Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that the instructions in these documents will work on every computer and every platform. Please inform us if you have problems with Opera, but please, first check our online support section, as this section is updated on a regular basis with information about the Opera Browser.
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