We aim to provide a website that is accessible to all of its visitors. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 states unambiguously that private and public sector web sites must be accessible with respect to the provision of services online.
The layout takes into account users who are visually impaired, Deaf or hard of hearing or have difficulties using a mouse. It has been developed to be compatible with popular screen reading software, and can be navigated easily using just a keyboard.
We have tested the site across the following browsers:
IE6, IE7, Firefox 3.0.11, Opera 9.22.
We have also tested the site in a Lynx browser. This is a text-only browser with no support for tables, css, images, JavaScript, Flash or audio or video content.
Conformance
We strive to conform, at a minimum, to Level Double-A compliance as specified by the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This also involves implementing a number selected Priority 3 checkpoints.
Accessibility features
- links are written to make sense when read out of context
- all informational images used in this site have appropriate alt text
- cascading stylesheets have been used for layout and presentation
- the site has been constructed so that it can be read with styles turned off
- the ability to adjust font sizes
- the ability to change the background and font colours
- all forms follow a logical tab sequence
- labels are associated with fields in HTML forms
- audio and text transcripts for video and podcasts
- text equivalents for Flash movies
We have not used access keys on this site as they can override keyboard shortcuts for screenreaders
Accessibility references
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
- Equality and Human Rights Commission
- RNIB - Royal National Institute of Blind People
Please contact us if you wish to give us feedback so we can continue to improve the accessibility of this web site.
