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Internet is a worldwide computer network with millions of service providers and users. The services are provided through the so-called Web pages. To access Web pages you need a client application or a so-called browser like Internet Explorer, Netscape etc.
A Web page contains more than a simple text to present the information of interest. The programming language for Internet or Web pages has the name HTML (hyper text markup language). It allows the integration of pictures, forms (Internet dialog boxes), maps, sound, videos and a big range of sub-programs (applets).
For sure the greatest advantage of HTML in comparison to the simple text is its oldest property: the integration of bookmarks, and internal and external links.
The Web pages or homepages are electronic documents proper for a network. That means, that a document can be stored in one file, in more files on the same computer or even in more files distributed between more computers anywhere on the world. The user has not to bother with the file names or file locations.
It is also very easy to navigate through the structure of a document, to look up the references or even the referred citations in other documents stored anywhere on the net.
The bookmarks are the HTML elements that mark some locations in a document to enable the browsers to visit these locations immediately by activating so-called links.
The bookmarks usually mark the headers of chapters and sections, the citations, the index entries etc.
A hyperlink or link is an active spot in a Web page which acts as a reference to a bookmark in the same Web page, to an other Web page or to a bookmark anywhere in an other Web page.
A link can be a piece of text, a picture or an area of a map or picture.
A link is normally underlined but its shape depends on the Web page author.
By clicking a link, the browser visits the reference point of this link.
MS Internet Explorer allows also a keyboard access for manipulating links. With TAB and SHIFT+TAB you can move forward and backward between links. You can activate the selected link by pressing ENTER.
Each Web page, nay each bookmark on a Web page has its own unique Internet address called URL (unique resource locator). For example, the URL of
the current location in this Tutorial is:
http://www.aib.uni-linz.ac.at/accelerate/ttu/ie.html#Internet
Addresses
Let's explain as short as possible the elements of a URL following the example above.
The forms are nothing else than dialog boxes designed for the Web. If you understand the logic of the Windows dialogs, you won't have problems with them.
The forms are used to enter different information which a service provider has to know to carry out a service.
You have to
In a form you have to fill in edit fields, to choose from lists of options, to check and/or uncheck options.
The most forms have two action buttons:
Most of the time these buttons are named Send and Reset, but this can differ according to the aim of the form. A Screen Reader user can nowadays speak about luck if the graphical images of these buttons have an alternative text to be recognized.
Similar to the window concept in the Windows operating system, the Web pages can tailor the display screen into several areas separated by the border lines. Each of the frames on the display can have its own text, images and navigation elements. The contents of one frame can for example change whereas the contents of an other stays unchanged.
The most modern Web pages are organized in frames. The common design is about to have
Many Screen Readers had or still have big problems to present the contents of a frame-designed Web page in a good accessible way. The greatest difficulty lies in the unclear notion of where exactly are the borders of a frame. A short time ago Internet Explorer started an access technology which makes possible for Screen Readers to correctly confine a frame area and so to present clearly its separate contents for the speech output or for the Braille display.
Before you start to work with Internet Explorer, make sure you have set the IE options according my to recommendations to optimize the accessibility.
In this Tutorial you can also find the full listing of IE shortcut keys.
We presume that Internet Explorer 5.0 or above is already installed on you computer.
To open a Web page or a local HTML file on your computer,
There is also an other way to open a local HTML file with the Internet Explorer application.
Make sure the Internet Explorer is the default Web browser on your system. That means, Windows will open the '.html' and '.htm' files in Internet Explorer when you activate them with a file manager application such as My Computer or Windows Explorer. You can set up Internet Explorer to be your default browser during the program installation time or any time later.
To do it afterwards,
With this option set, to open a Web page in any location on your file system,
The hyper text features of the Web pages make moving around in Internet very easy and intuitive. One calls it navigating or browsing through the Pages. Here from stem also the names Browser or Navigator for the Internet client applications.
There are two different sets of navigation tools available:
Each Web page provides a number of hyperlinks to enable you to navigate through its contents or to visit the other relevant Homepages. Some of these links are organized in the navigation bars, located usually along the top or left-side edge of the display or in an extra navigational frame. The others are scattered on the different locations in the text where they mostly offer the access to the relative topics.
Many links are graphical images, pictures or spots on a map. When the Web page author doesn't provide an alternative text for these objects, there is absolutely no chance for a Screen Reader user to use the navigation. In this case he/she sees at best the file name of the link object and it is a big luck when this file name by accident reveals a bit of its real nature. So if you find a link with only the name 'go.gif', it could be that it is an action button which will send your form or perform another job. But unfortunately the most of these nice pictures call themselves 'umr59ol.jpg' or 'a_k_789.gif'.
We appeal again and again to the Web authors to stop the exclusion of media disabled people and to learn a minimum about the Web design for all supported by the World Wide Web Consortium!
Internet Explorer offers an easy way to activate links on a Web page:
The special ***sr support for Internet Explorer you can find on the end of the Explorer Tutorial section.
To scroll through the contents of a Page or the contents of a selected frame use:
With the Previous, Next and Home button on the tool bar, provides Internet Explorer the basic navigational tools.
An additional navigation help is the Favorites folder, where you can save the hyperlinks of Web pages that you intend to visit in the future sessions.
When you are on a Web page that you think you want to visit some time in the future, do following to save it:
When you want to open one of your Favorites,