Accessibility

Accessibility Statement

American Express is committed to making our website more accessible to all visitors, including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities. We are currently working to conform our web sites to level A and level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (v 2.0) as recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on December 11th, 2008.

Website Accessibility Features

We offer the following accessibility features on our site:

Navigation

A hidden menu has been placed at the beginning of each page to allow screen reader users to link to the main areas of the page.

A hidden link has also been provided at the beginning of each page to provide easy access to information on accessibility.

Headings and navigation menus

HTML heading tags are used to convey document structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles etc.

Navigation menus are marked up as HTML lists. This ensures that the number of links in the list is read out at the start and it can be skipped easily.

Colours

We have taken care to ensure that the site's font and background colour combinations contrast significantly and are effective in ensuring information is still clear when viewed in different colour combinations. If you wish to override the site's colours, you can do this by changing your browser settings to your own preference.

Tables

Most data tables have properly scoped header cells, to allow screen readers to render them intelligently. We have also ensured table summaries are used as well as captions where appropriate.

Tables used for layout use none of the above attributes to ensure that they are not confused with data tables.

Forms and fields

All forms fields follow a logical tab sequence to ensure easy navigation. Most form fields also have ‘label’ and ‘id’ attributes to explicitly associate the form field with its label to allow for easy entry of data.

Changing Text Size

Most of the font sizes we use on our site are sizable. You can change the font size to make it either larger or smaller via your browser settings. Below you will find a step-by-step guide to enlarging the text in your internet browser.

Microsoft Internet Explorer - all versions

Select Tools, then Internet Options, then Accessibility.

Next click on any or all 3 checkboxes to ignore colours, font styles or font sizes.

In the same window you can change your style sheet by clicking the checkbox that says, 'Format document using my style sheet' then browse to your style sheet and click OK.

Open your Internet Explorer web browser.

Choose the drop down menu at the top of the window of the browser marked "view" (or press ‘Alt’ and ‘V’).

A list of options will appear in the drop down menu, choose "text size" (or press ‘X’).

Next another drop down menu should appear with options including "small", "medium", "large", "largest".

Select "largest" (or use the ‘up’ and ‘down’ arrows to select and press ‘Enter’).

Mozilla Firefox - all versions

Open your Firefox web browser.

Hold down the ‘Ctrl’ button on your keyboard and press the plus (+) key.

You will find that this will enlarge the text, to enlarge again repeat the procedure.

Keep repeating until the text is enlarged to your requirements.

If you need to make the text smaller press ‘Ctrl’ on your keyboard and the minus ( - ) key.

Apple Safari - all versions

Open your Apple Safari web browser.

Hold down the Apple Key and press the (+) key.

You will find that this will enlarge the text, to enlarge again repeat the procedure.

Keep repeating until the text is enlarged to your requirements.

If you need to make the text smaller press the Apple Key on your keyboard and press the (-) key.

Skip to Navigation Link

At the top of every page is a hidden link that is spoken by screen-reading software and will appear when 'tabbed to' using a keyboard. It is the first link and, when selected, will make reading skip past the rest of the menu items and commence at the beginning of the main page content.

Useful Links

If you would like to know more about accessibility and the Internet, you may be interested in the following websites:

Vision Australia Blindness and low version services
W3C Australia: State Policies Relating To Web Accessibility
Australian Human Rights Commission World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes
JAWS - a screen reader for use with Windows.