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Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring everyone can access our website. This includes people with sight problems, hearing, mobility and cognitive impairments as well as users with dial-up, older browsers or newer technologies such as smartphones and tablets.

Our website has been designed with the needs of people with sight problems in mind, including those who use access technology to browse the internet.

We have also taken on board international guidance and best practice on web accessibility. We have designed this website to be as accessible as possible for most used platforms, browsers and screen readers. You may wish to alter the way the website looks using your web browser settings.

The website is AA compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (W3C WCAG). All website features have been built using Priority 3 checkpoints as described in the Disability Discrimination Act.

Changing the text size

To change the font using the browser menu, follow these instructions:

  • Internet Explorer, select Text Size from the View menu. Then choose the preferred size
  • Mozilla FireFox, select Text Size from the View menu. Then choose the preferred size
  • Googvle Chrome, click on Zoom from the main menu.
  • Safari, Click on Reader button.
  • Netscape Navigator, select Text Zoom from the View menu. Then choose the preferred size
  • Opera, select Zoom from the View menu

Standards compliance

  • All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles
  • All pages on this site are validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional
  • All pages on this site are Bobby AAA approved
  • All pages on this site are WCAG AAA approved, complying wih the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Visual design

  • This website uses only relative font sizes. Font size can be increased or decreased using the browser menu
  • The website uses cascading style sheets for visual layout. Tables are not used for visual layout
  • The website is using separate style sheets optimised for printing
  • If the device used is not supporting cascading style sheets, the content will be still visible as plain text
  • Using modern CSS to control styling and presentation of pages
  • Using JavaScript in an unobtrusive manner, thus separating content from both presentation and behaviour
  • Checking contrast levels between elements, enhancing legibility of content for those who may be visually impaired

Content

  • Maintaining a standard, conventional layout and structure throughout the website
  • Using the correct and appropriate HTML5 tags to mark up our pages and content
  • Employing a logical typographical hierarchy for content, enhancing readability
  • Using table-based markup only for tabular data, and never for layout or presentation
  • Using an adaptive page layout system, allowing content to be shown in a way which is appropriate to the viewing device
  • Ensuring link text makes contextual sense, using title and rel attributes as appropriate

Images

All images used in this website include descriptive ALT attributes to explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers.

Links

  • Most of the links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail
  • Links are written to makes sense out of context

PDFs

Most documents on this website are PDFs (portable document format). The advantage of a PDF is that it will always be presented consistently. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDF files, and this can be downloaded for free. Adobe has recently updated its free reader to include screenreading functionality.

Flash

We do not use Adobe Flash technology on our website.

JavaScript

The website has been configured to allow users access to its full range of functionality whether or not they have JavaScript enabled in their browsers. Where JavaScript is used, it is only used to enhance the user experience. It is never essential.

How to use access keys in your Browser

  • Internet Explorer - Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key, release both keys and press the return key
  • Netscape 7 on Windows - Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key
  • Firefox, Mozilla on Windows - Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key
  • Firefox, Mozilla on Mac - Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key
  • Opera - Hold down the Shift key and press Escape, release both keys, then press the number of the accesskey
  • Safari on Windows - Press ALT + the ‘access’ key, then press the ‘enter’ key to trigger the action.