Accessibility
We recognise the importance of providing a website that can be used in a variety of ways which do not depend on a single sense, ability, or technology. Building a website which is usable, desirable and accessible for all user groups, including the disabled, is our ongoing commitment.
Standards Compliance
Our site conforms to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level A and we're working towards Level AA compliance.
Below is a list of critical requirements, which alone cover nearly 40% of those highlighted by W3C accessibility problems. These have been given extra attention and the highest priority during expert evaluation.
- Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
- Ensure that foreground and background colour combinations provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen
- Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page
- Until user agents allow users to freeze moving content, avoid movement in pages
- Until user agents allow users to turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user
- Divide large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate
- Clearly identify the target of each link
- Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content
Our commitment to you
Accessibility Features
Navigation aids
In order to avoid any conflict with personal access keys you may have set up on your computer, we've chosen not to install bespoke access keys on this site. Efforts have been made to ensure the site is as easy to navigate as possible.
Semantic markup
Structured, semantic markup is used to represent document structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, h3 tags for subtitles, and so on.
Cascading style sheets are used for visual layout, and Javascript is used to enhance usability and for decorative purposes, however pages are still fully accessible if these technologies are ignored or unsupported.
Images
Descriptive and meaningful text equivalents are provided for all content images, graphical buttons, symbols and objects. Images are not used to represent text, all headings are styled with the help of CSS and can be resized to suit users needs.
Colours
Website design has been tested against colour contrast to ensure that all information is still clear.
Most of the text is written as grey on white and is perfectly contrasting. Grey on white combination passes colour visibility test successfully.
Font sizes
Relative units have been used in markup language and CSS, therefore website layout accommodates resizing text on all widely-used browsers.