Web Accessibility

The National Science Foundation is committed to making every document on its World Wide Web server accessible to the widest possible audience.

We work with NSF's accessibility specialists and with other federal agencies and federal web consortia to ensure that our documents are, to the maximum extent feasible, accessible to persons using special screen reading software and hardware.

NSF also encourages its grantees both to use the web to disseminate information about their work, and to create World Wide Web pages that are generally accessible for persons using screen reading devices. More information about accessible web design is available.

At the top of most web pages on our site, there is an invisible link to a text-only version of the page. In addition, there is a visible "Text Only" link in the footer of most pages. Many of the documents on our web server are in ASCII or HTML formats. We also have some files in word processing or spreadsheet formats, and in addition we produce many of our documents as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Many persons using screen reading devices cannot read documents in PDF format. Therefore, every document on our server in Portable Document Format is either accompanied by an ASCII, HTML, or word-processing version, or can be made available as a printed document upon request. Our commitment is particularly stringent for any publication relating to NSF funding opportunities. For more information or to provide feedback on accessibility issues or problems and the NSF web site, please send email to the NSF Webmaster ( webmaster@nsf.gov).

NSF's Office of Equal Opportunity Programs (OEOP) is responsible for coordinating the agency's compliance with sections 501 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. For more information, please contact Shawn Murray, OEOP, at 703-292-2151 or smurray@nsf.gov.