This section provides accessibility information for Biocat’s website as well as browsing tips, user assistance, and directions to Biocat’s microsites.
This is the official website of Biocat, the organization that coordinates and stimulates biotechnology, biomedicine, and medical technology in Catalonia, with support from the Catalan Government and Barcelona City Hall. The site features a range of Web 2.0 resources and services for Catalan and foreign research organizations and companies. It was designed to serve as a meeting point for members of the Catalan biocluster (known as the BioRegion of Catalonia) and to promote this cluster internationally. It is also an open channel for any members of the public that wish to learn about biotechnology.
The Biocat website was created with the open-source platform Drupal, a content management system (CMS) geared towards Internet communities.
Biocat.cat is characterized by its accessible design: in order to provide access to the greatest number of users, the site was designed without any visual or technological obstacles.
This was accomplished by following the WCAG 1.0 accessibility guidelines established by the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) working group of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).
The user can adjust the text size according to his/her needs. The steps to do this vary by browser.
| Browser | Menu instructions |
|---|---|
| Firefox | View > Text Size > Increase/Decrease |
| Internet Explorer | View > Text Size > Larger/Smaller |
| Internet Explorer Mobile | View > Zoom > Adjust text size |
| Konqueror | View > Make font bigger/Make font smaller |
| Opera | View > Zoom > Adjust scale |
| Safari | View > Make text bigger/Make text smaller |
Users that wish to access the website without seeing complex formatting can view the site contents as plain black text on a white background (the default setting on most browsers). This is done by disabling use of cascading style sheets (CSS) on the site. Alternatively, some browsers enable users to format a site’s contents according to a personalized CSS.
Disabling CSS:
How to turn off visual design mode:
| Browser | Menu instructions |
|---|---|
| Firefox | View > Page Style > No Style |
| Konqueror | Change configuration |
| Opera | View > Style > User mode |
Note: For user convenience, the information provided above corresponds to some of the most widely used Internet browsers; however, in no way does Biocat commercially advocate or promote the use of any particular browser.
In addition to the aforementioned accessibility parameters, the Biocat website was also programmed according to the XHTML 1.0 standard for formatting design elements using cascading style sheets (CSS). This obviates the use of any proprietary standards unique to a particular device or browser, guaranteeing universal access to information from any browser that meets the W3C’s standards and recommendations.
In some cases, XHTML pages may be complemented with content delivered in other formats. In these cases, in which a single, open standard format may be unavailable (or such a format does exist, but is not universally supported), the Biocat website was designed to support the following highly popular formats through the use of appropriate free components (plugins).
To guarantee optimal performance of its website, Biocat recommends the following combinations of operating system and browser, browser components, and settings:
Recommended screen resolution: at least 1024 x 768. To fully exploit the Biocat website’s graphic interface, JavaScript and CSS must both be activated; however, this is not required for simple browsing.
B·Debate International Center for Scientific Debate Barcelona
www.bdebate.org
Biocapsules training program
http://biocapsules.biocat.cat/es/
Biocat Forum
http://forum.biocat.cat/
If you encounter any difficulties accessing or viewing information on the Biocat website, or have any recommendations on how to improve accessibility on the site, please contact Biocat’s Communications and External Relations Department: comunicacio@biocat.cat.
Publication: © Biocat – Communications and Marketing Department
Graphic design: © Neus Cañas
