Browser requirements

In order to access protected services using Athens, your browser must be set up to use both SSL and cookies. All modern browsers support these features. Personal and network firewalls, if present, can also affect cookies and SSL.

Cookies

Athens does not use third party cookies, so these can be blocked if required. This is true for both Classic Athens (where users log in with Athens accounts) and AthensDA (where you login with a local/organisation account). Settings in Internet Explorer should be privacy = medium and security = medium. Athens itself works with higher settings but in order to maintain compatibility with our service providers, the medium setting is recommended. Other browsers will work with their default settings. Details about how Athens uses cookies are available on our Privacy policy page.

SSL

SSL is mandatory for Athens use. Details about how Athens uses SSL are available on our Security page.

Browser compatibility

The Athens websites work with all standards compliant browsers.

Web accessibility

The Athens website (http://www.athensams.net) has been checked for accessibility against the W3C checkpoints and found to be AA compliant.  In addition, we have checked all the Athens authentication points for Athens protected resources using the screen readers JAWS for Windows 7. Please note, however, that we have no control over the resources themselves since their content belongs to the service providers. We will continue checking all the Athens web pages for accessibility compliance, amending them where necessary.