Accessibility

Accessibility Statement

We are committed to ensuring that our website, i.e. the pages and information presented on it in electronic format, are accessible to all its users (including users with disabilities) and regardless of the any particular tools used to browse the web.

The template(s) controlling the initial structure and presentation for this website's Content Management System have been constructed with the aim of conforming to, as a minimum, the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines priority level 2 (Double A). For more information about this standard and how we have tried to ensure accessibility please scroll down to the heading Accessibility Features and Considerations.

Screen Readers and Text Only Browsers

In order to benefit users of screen readers and text-only browsers this website has been designed so that it will degrade gracefully on browsers that do not support CSS. Tables have been avoided for layout purposes so that once "linearised" the content still makes sense. For pages where the content is placed after the navigational items, we have provided hidden 'Skip To Content' links. Navigation has been created using text, not images and is a constructed via an HTML list. In the absence of JavaScript and/or CSS, the navigation will still be accessible and functional.

Re-sizing Text

The text on this site is resizable. The majority of the information on this site has been created using relative font size and as such can be adjusted to suit the individual needs of each user. These re-size controls are to the top of each page, however, in the absence of JavaScript simply use the instructions for your browser below:-

Internet Explorer 7+
Choose Page > View > Text Size - select your preferred text size.
Or to enlarge text with your keyboard, press Ctrl-Plus.
Or to reduce text with your keyboard use Ctrl-Minus.
Opera 5-6
Use the Zoom toolbar to increase or decrease the page enlargement factor.
Firefox
Choose View > Text Size > Increase/Decrease
Or to enlarge text with your keyboard, press Ctrl-Plus (Windows) or Cmd-Plus (Mac)
Or to reduce text with your keyboard use Ctrl-Minus (Windows) or Cmd-Minus (Mac)
Safari
Choose View > Make text bigger
Or with your keyboard, press Cmd-Plus to enlarge text, or Cmd-Minus to reduce it
Camino
Choose View - Bigger Text
Or with your keyboard, press Cmd-Plus to enlarge text, or Cmd-Minus to reduce it

Accessibility Features and Considerations

Ever effort has been made to ensure that all pages meet the Double A standard, however the exact level of compliance may differ from page to page. Despite rigorous testing with automated systems we often find some issues are not flagged and these may be missed in our manual checks. Additionally, a Content Managed System means that the website pages are subject to change more frequently and thus would need to be reassessed.

The following list details some of the features of the site and accessibility considerations taken into account when designing this website.

Cascading Style Sheets

The website layout is completely controlled by Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and has been encoded using XHTML. By using this method of construction the layout of the page is separate from the content of the page. If you are using a browser which does not support CSS then you will be presented by a pure text version of the site with the content laid out in a logical order. This separation of content from layout enables the site to achieve a higher level of accessibility.

Links

Hyperlink (web link) text has been written to make sense when read out of context. This will aid users viewing the site using a screen reader. Duplicate link text has been avoided as has words which imply the use of a specific input device; i.e.'click here' assumes the visitor is using a mouse.

Care has also been taken to ensure that the user can differentiate between links and standard content text.

Where possible, the use of images as page links has been avoided. If there are any image links, effort has been put in to provide an equivalent text link.

Images

All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics are either applied using CSS, or include empty ALT tag attributes. In some cases images have been used for headings. These images replace the text of the heading automatically using JavaScript. ALT text is automatically generated for these images however users without JavaScript, or those who have it disabled, will simply see the original heading in formatted text.

Font Sizes

A standard font size has been used throughout the website with variations for headings and other styles. If this is not sufficient for your individual needs you may change the font size of this text content, either via the size options found on each page or the preferences settings of your web browser.

TIP: most modern browsers allow resizing of text via the keyboard using CTRL and the PLUS (+) or MINUS (-) keys.

Navigation Shortcuts

Use of the Tab key to navigate through pages and forms have been ordered naturally to facilitate ease-of-use for those who rely on the keyboard for navigation.

Cross-Browser Issues

The layout and design of this site has taken different browsers into account with regards to the main web browser applications. The site has been previewed using both Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla/FireFox browsers with additional testing taking place on Home Page Reader for visually impaired web users.

If the layout had problematic elements between browsers, then the design was made to perform best on Internet Explorer (due to it's current status as the most popular web browser) and then worked on to display to near-perfect on the other browsers.

Accessibility