About this Website

The following information applies only to the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services website.

The design and structure of this website was updated in May, 2008. It was designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, intuitively organized, easily updated, and focused on the requirements of users.

Here are some of the site's more notable characteristics:

• This site generally does not require users to have the most recent version of browsers or other software, but it will look and work better on Netscape 6 and above, Internet Explorer 5 and above, Firefox and Safari.
• We use cookies to improve functionality, such as navigation and text format preferences. We do not use them to store personal information. See the Nova Scotia Website Privacy Policy for more information.
• This site uses JavaScript to enhance the functionality and the appearance of the site. Users with scripting turned off in their browser setting will see no significant changes except that the option to switch to a different text format will be unavailable.
• This website is generally compliant with the XHTML Transitional standards set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). If you notice significant inconsistencies with that standard, please let us know through our web feedback form.
• This site is constructed using cascading style sheets (CSS) and does not use HTML tables except for tabular data.  The CSS is compliant with the cascading style sheets standards set out by the W3C.
• We have a number of PDF documents on this site, though that format is generally reserved for long documents, brochures or forms. We advise you to use Adobe's free Acrobat Reader to open and read these documents.
• This site is designed to have relatively small pages (in terms of file size) so as to load quickly enough to be convenient for dial-up users.
• Each page contains the date on which the content was last updated, though this does not necessarily suggest the change was substantive.
• We try to use succinct, plain language.  
• We generally follow the conventions of the Canadian Press Style Guide, though there may be exceptions.
• We use bulleted lists extensively because they are widely considered to be effective online.
• URLs on this site are generally meaningful and readable, and reflect the structure of the site.
• The title and meta descriptions of each page are written to be useful and understandable in search engine results.
• Our pages are relatively small in terms of file size and elelments are designed to load in a optimal order for users with slower connections.
• We have a stylesheet optimized for printing, so uneccessary elements (such as navigation text and some graphics) will not appear on printed pages. (To print the actual page as it appears on your screen we recommend using SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN on Windows, or SHIFT + COMMAND + 3 on a Mac.)
• We generate an XML site map for optimized indexing by the Google search engine.
• The templates for this site were written using Adobe Dreamweaver MX.
• The site is updated and managed using Fog Creek Software CityDesk 2.0.

If there is content you feel would be a useful addition to this site, or content that is outdated or incorrect in some way, or the site is experiencing a technical problem of some sort, please let us know through our website feedback form.

Related information

• Accessibility Statement