November Activities
Grab a sweater and a warm beverage and join us this November. Activities are free and open to all!. Check out our November Newsletter
Grab a sweater and a warm beverage and join us this November. Activities are free and open to all!. Check out our November Newsletter
Join us for our Annual General Meeting: Wednesday October 30th @ 5pm Open to all! Come and find out about our services and programs. Enjoy some light refreshment and meet people in your community. Register here for the AGM by October 25 https://forms.office.com/r/5zgubBGnbu or call 450-263-7503 or email [email protected] Remember: If you want to vote…
Whether you are just beginning, or you want to improve your basic skills, YLC has FREE digital literacy workshops. October (Introduction) 2 sessions November: (Intermediate) 4 sessions To register: 450-263-7503 or [email protected]
Are you passionate about lifelong learning and community development? Want to join a dynamic staff and volunteer team? Check out the employment opportunity for Development Agent in Brome-Missisquoi. We invite qualified individuals to submit their CV and cover letter by September 9th to [email protected] Only candidates chosen for an interview will be contacted. Yamaska Literacy…
It is with sadness that we say farewell to Martha Shufelt, longtime literacy advocate, Yamaska Literacy volunteer, and friend who passed away in January. Martha volunteered throughout her life, for many different organizations. She started her volunteer career at a young age, participating in and governing many school clubs, helping fellow students with their studies…
Family Literacy Day is a national initiative held annually on January 27 to raise awareness about the importance of engaging in reading and other literacy-related activities as a family. Family literacy focuses on parents, grandparents and other family members to improve the reading and writing skills of the whole family. By reading to children and engaging…
Are you passionate about community based literacy? Want to join a dynamic team of volunteers and staff? The Yamaska Literacy Council looking for a Development Agent to cover the Haute-Yamaska region. Job Posting – Development Agent (Haute-Yamaska) The Yamaska Literacy Council (YLC), a community-based adult literacy organization that provides literacy services in English in…
Our 12th annual PGI “Lob for Literacy” fundraiser is coming soon, and we invite you to help us “hit it out of the park”! The tournament will be held September 9 & 10, 2022 Stanbridge East Community Centre. 100% of the funds raised will support Yamaska Literacy programs. YLC provides FREE literacy services and programs…
Grace Saabas, long-time literacy volunteer, passed away last week, shortly after her 90th birthday. Her pioneering work in the literacy field is a significant part of her legacy. Born an only child from Tavistock Ontario, Grace graduated from Christian Education at the University of Waterloo in 1958, as well as the Mother House in Baltimore,…
The Yamaska Literacy Council (YLC) is a community based literacy organization, serving English-speaking adults in Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska. We’re looking to hire a new member of the team, as Development Agent for Brome-Missisquoi. Are you passionate about literacy and community development? The position is part-time and contractual. See the full job posting for details. …
Yamaska Literacy Council Accessibility Statement
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to