Accessibility
It is important to us that our website that is accessible to all and we have aimed to ensure that our site can be used by people with disabilities.
Wherever possible we aim to reach a conformance Level Single A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Accessibility features
We have introduced the features below to ensure the best possible experience on our site by all users.
Colours
We have tried to ensure that the site's font and background colour combinations contrast significantly.
Copy
Abbreviations are kept to an absolute minimum and where used an explanation is given.
Font size
Most of the font sizes we use on our site are sizable. You can change the font size to make it either larger or smaller via your browser settings. You can change the font size in the following browsers;
Forms and fields
All form fields follow a logical tab sequence to ensure easy navigation. Most form fields also have 'label' and 'id' attributes to explicitly associate the form field with its label to allow for easy entry of data.
Headings and navigation menus
HTML heading tags are used to convey document 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 tag attributes. Where an image has no use other than being decorative the alt tag is set to null to allow easy reading of the site by all users.
Javascript
The use of Javascript has been kept to an absolute minimum. Where it is used then all pages and process are still accessible should Javascript be turned off.
Links
All links have been written to make sense when taken out of context. Where appropriate, we have also added link title attributes to describe the link in greater detail.
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. A hidden link has also been provided at the beginning of each page to provide easy access to information on accessibility. For people using screenreaders we have included skip links which allow you to bypass the navigation and go straight through to the main page content.
Style sheets
This site uses cascading style sheets for all visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the use of structured semantic mark up ensures that the content of each page is still readable and clearly structured.
Useful accessibility links
If you would like to find out more about accessibility and the web you may be interested in the sites below:
- www.w3.org/WAI - W3C accessibility guidelines
- RNIB website - the Royal National Institute for the Blind
- www.bcab.org.uk - British Computer Association of the Blind
- Lynx - a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
