Site accessibility policy

This Website has been designed to comply with all of the Internet standards defined by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), particularly the directives relative to Web content accessibility, as set forth in the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative). Anchored in these principles, this site is accessible to all Web users, including seniors or the disabled with functional limitations. A site that meets all accessibility guidelines is of benefit to the entire Web community. Below are listed a few of these advantages:

• Site content follows a logical and sequential structure
• Pages typically load between 30% and 80% faster
• Site functionalities do not depend on the particular browser used

Browser compatibility:

This site is compatible with all recent browsers able to support HTML 4.01 and CSS 2 formats and respects both the XHTML and CSS vocabulary and grammar, as specified under W3C. Consequently, the navigation experience will be optimized with latest-generation browsers, yet the site remains completely accessible for less recent browsers. The use of any of the following browsers is hereby recommended:

• On Windows: Internet Explorer 8+, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Opera
• On Mac.OS.X (Macintosh operating system 10): Opera, Safari, Mozilla Firefox
• On Linux: Mozilla Firefox, Opera

Navigation principles:

On all of the site's pages, you'll find the following navigation aids:

The main menu contains links to access the primary content, organized and sorted into headings.

The "breadcrumb trail" across the top informs the user of the current page and allows quickly accessing the next browsing level. This display is present just after the main menu.

Quick access links (go to specific content, top of page, More+ etc.), which are especially useful to blind users, offer direct access to the editorial zone of each page.

The site map provides an overall diagram of the site's various headings and subheadings. It is available through a link inserted at the top of each page.

Links contained in the footer: Contact us, Sitemap, Disclaimer, Accessibility.

Keyboard navigation: use the « up » and « down » arrows (cursor keys) to move the scroll bar, the « Tab » key to navigate from one link to the next, and the « Enter » key to follow an active link.

Character font size

Small character fonts can hinder the Internet reading experience for some users. This site has been built to allow easily adjusting the character size of text passages depending on the functionalities proposed by the various browsers:

• Internet Explorer: Select the menu sequence "Display", "Text size"
• Mozilla: Select the menu sequence "Display", "Text size"
• Opera: Select the menu sequence "Display", "Zoom"
• Safari: Select the menu sequence "Presentation", "Enlarge/Reduce text size"

If you're equipped with a wheel mouse, the majority of browsers are capable of enlarging text size by combining wheel action with a particular keystroke:

• Windows: Ctrl key + moving the mouse wheel
• Mac: Apple key + moving the mouse wheel

PDF documents for downloading:

On this site, you'll find downloadable documents in PDF format without any accessible version being directly associated. To read documents in this PDF format, you can download Acrobat Reader. Another option would be to transform the PDF file into a standard HTML format using Adobe's online conversion engine; to proceed with this conversion, copy the link address to the PDF file and paste it in the field intended for this purpose on the online conversion tool (found at http://www.adobe.com).