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NETSCAPE ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY STANDARD ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORT FOR NETSCAPE BROWSER

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - March 13, 2003 - Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc, today announced that industry standard accessibility support has been added to Netscape 7.02, the latest version of Netscape's browser software.   These new developments are part of America Online and Netscape's ongoing commitment to deliver an Internet experience that is accessible, friendly and easy to use for all consumers.

Netscape's accessibility enhancements will allow assistive technology vendors, such as developers of screen readers, screen magnifiers and voice dictation software, to better develop products that are compatible with the Netscape browser, offering consumers with disabilities a fresh alternative in browser software.

The built-in support includes accessibility enhancements for productivity features such as tabbed browsing, My Sidebar, web browsing, an HTML editor, email client, address book and instant messaging software.   Other highlights include:

  • Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA)* and read access to the Document Object Model (DOM).

  • Keyboard support and complete keyboard documentation, including a full list of Keyboard Shortcuts in Netscape Help.

  • Convenient zooming technology, which allows users to zoom to any desired level.

  • Support for Microsoft Windows Display Settings featuring the same fonts and colors as Windows programs when the classic skin is used.

  • Support of W3C standards such as HTML, CSS, DOM and MathML and XML.

  • Control over HTML layout including preferences for user style sheets and appearance.

  • A new "Browse With Caret" mode, which allows consumers to select text using the keyboard.
These accessibility enhancements also extend to Mozilla 1.21 and can be leveraged by other products based on the Netscape Gecko rendering engine.

Netscape's accessibility work is part of the Mozilla open source project.  To review plans for ongoing Netscape accessibility projects and to learn more about the new industry standard accessibility support for the Netscape 7.02 browser, please visit http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility. To download a copy of the browser, please visit http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers

* Please note that as MSAA is not simply a "plug and play" solution, assistive technology developers will likely need to implement changes in their own software code to achieve optimal performance with the Netscape browser.