The AFI website operates much like any other website on the internet. We use standard formats put in place by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to help insure that the visitor has an easy time in navigation of the site.

The website is best viewed with a browser width of 780 pixels wide. This size is large enough to held the content of the body text while allowing screen magnification programs some working room. Use of a 640 pixel width is also acceptable as the body of most of our pages will fit nicely into that window without repeated left/right scrolling to read the text.

A sample webpage is pictured to the right. This shows the uniform layout that is present on most of the pages of the AFI website. This tutorial will focus on this layout and the key features included within it.

AFI is striving to providing both an informative website as well as a site that is accessible to those with or without visual limitations. Sometimes this is a huge challenge considering the non-standard world of the internet with differences in browsers, server platforms, and operating systems in use by the collection of our visitors. Please keep this in mind as we travel though the webpage layout as their may be minor differences between your display and what we describe.

The top portion of the AFI webpage has the organizations logo, a search tool, and a link to selecting display preferences.

The AFI Logo doubles as a quick link back to the AFI Home Page. Get there easily simply by clicking anywhere in the logo area.

The AFI website uses the "GoodSearch" feature for searching either the AFI website or the entire internet. We encourage the use of GoodSearch through the AFI website as AFI earns money for every search done here. GoodSearch is a non-profit-group branch of Yahoo so you know the search will yield many worthwhile results. Be sure to check the appropriate box for searching the AFI "site" or the entire "Web".

If you click on the "Preferences" button you will be given options to change the way the website is displayed to you. You can choose different colors or sizes for text to meet your particular needs. You choices are stored in a "cookie" on your computer so if your system does not allow cookies or you delete cookies for security reasons then you will have to reset your preferences again. The AFI website does NOT store any personally identifiable information in these cookies.

Under the AFI logo area, the webpage splits into two sections. The right side is for the body of the page where you will find text related to the topic of the webpage. This will change for every page you visit. The leftside section is called the "Menu bar" even though it contains more than just a menu. This section covers the items in the top portion of the Menu Bar.

One of the long term goals of the AFI website is to have our materials accurately translated into several different languages. This will help support our International outreach. Until this happens, visitors can use the translation provided by "BabelFish" which is the top item on the Menu Bar. Simply select the desired language from the list to invoke this feature. This will automatically continue to translate new webpages as you travel through the website. Please keep in mind that the translation is NOT perfect, but it is better than nothing at all.

Just below the BabelFish box is the "Members Login" area. At current, AFI has an area on MyFamily.com for Member services support. Clicking on the "MyFamily.com Login" text sends you to the login page. Please use the login information which was provided to you when you became an AFI Member. There is a tutorial on using the MyFamily website available after you login.

During the fall of 2009, AFI will open up our own Members Only area which will eventually replace our need for the MyFamily.com members area. Our Members will login to this area with the "Username" and "Password" boxes provided here. Members will be notified by email when they can start using this area. Once a Member successfully completes their login, the "Username" and "Password" boxes will be replaced by the Members login details.

Just below the Members Login area is a "Donate" graphic. This provides a quick link to our online Donation page. All donations are greatly appreciated as it enables AFI to continue to support important medical research in the attempt to cure Aniridia and related diseases.

The area of the Menu Bar with the dark blue background contains the "Menu". The menu lists the webpages that are available to you. Simply click on the item you are interested in. Notice that the current webpage is displayed in yellow while the other menu items are in white. As an added feature, menu items become bigger as the mouse pointer moves over them. This enables our visitors with low vision to easily navigate the website.

Because there are different categories of the website menu system, the menu will often have different items displayed on it. However, anytime you are not on the Main Menu there is an item labeled "AFI Home" that will bring you back to the Main Menu.

Then the background of the Menu Bar area changes from blue to white. In this area is the address of the AFI headquarters. This area is also a quick link back to the AFI Home Page if you click on any of this text.

The website is designed to adjust the vertical length of the Menu Bar area according to the length of material in the page body (to the right of the Menu Bar). Because of this, there may be empty white space below the AFI address information to the bottom of the webpage.

Below the Menu Bar and Body, the background changes to blue and the page returns to a single frame.

Here we present the visitor with a complete website "Sitemap". The Sitemap is similar to the menu on the Menu Bar in operation. The current webpage is displayed in yellow while other items are in white. Moving the mouse pointer over these items enlarges them similar to the regular Menu entries. The difference is that the Sitemap displays EVERY page on the website that the visitor has access to rather than limiting the list to a specific category. This provides an easy way to navigate the website without relying on the Menu system.

The final part of the webpage layout is the list of credits and copyright information. The AFI Website is custom made to meet the needs of the organization and therefore all material on the website is owned by AFI. Use of this material outside of the AFI Website is prohibited according to copyright laws and should only be used by permission from AFI.

We hope you have enjoyed this brief website tutorial. If you still have questions or problems while using the AFI website please let me know by emailing me