Accessibility
Our website has been designed to achieve Conformance Level Priority 1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Accessibility features
We have introduced the following features to ensure the best use of our site by all of our users:
Navigation
A hidden menu has been placed at the beginning of each page to allow screen reader users to link to the main areas of the page.
Headings and navigation menus
HTML heading tags are used to convey the page structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles etc.
Navigation menus are marked up as HTML lists. This ensures that the number
of links in the list is read out at the start and it can be skipped easily.
Images
All images used in this site include descriptive alt tags, so they can be read by reading software.
Colours
We have tried to make the font high-contrast. If you wish to override
the site's colours, you can do this by changing your browser settings
to your own preference.
Font size
You can change the font size on our site to make it either larger or smaller via your browser settings.
You can do this in the following ways depending on your browser;
- In Internet Explorer; select View, then Text Size, and then your preferred size.
- In Netscape; select View, thenText Zoom, and then your preferred percentage size.
Stylesheets
This site uses cascading style sheets for all visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets, the use of structured semantic mark up ensures that the content of each page is still readable.
You can apply your own stylesheet to this website by;
In Internet Explorer;
- Select Tools, then Internet Options, then Accessibility,
- Next click on any or all 3 checkboxes to ignore colours, font styles or font sizes.
- In the same window you can change your style sheet by clicking the checkbox that says, 'format document using my style sheet' then browse to your style sheet and click OK.
In Netscape;
- select Edit, then Preferences and then Appearance,
- you will be given the choice to specify your own colours and fonts.
Forms
All forms fields follow a logical tab sequence to ensure easy navigation.
JavaScript
The use of Java script has been kept to an absolute minimum. Where it
is used then all pages and process are still accessible
should Javascript be turned off.
Useful links
RNIB website - The Royal National Institute for the Blind.
www.w3.org/WAI - W3C accessibility guidelines.
www.bcab.org.uk - British Computer Association of the Blind.
www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie - BBC web pages specially constructed to improve clarity for visually impaired users. The website also includes other useful links.
http://www.disability.gov.uk/dda/ - The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA).
JAWS - a screen reader for use with Windows.
Lynx - a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
Links - a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.