An accessible website ensures that all visitors have the same user experience whether they use assistive technology or not. This website meets level 2 (and in part level 3) of the W3C’s – Web Accessibility Initiative standards and guidelines for creating accessible websites. We have introduced the following features to ensure the best use of our site by all of our users.
Navigation
A hidden menu has been placed at the beginning of each page to allow screen reader users to link to the main content 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.
Access keys
Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press CTRL + an access key. The following access keys are available throughout the site:
| Access key | Target |
|---|---|
| 0 | Accessibility policy |
| 1 | Skip to content |
| 2 | Home page |
| 3 | Contact page |
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.
Colours
We have taken care to ensure that the site’s font and background colour combinations contrast significantly and are effective in ensuring information is still clear when viewed in different colour combinations.
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.
Stylesheets
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.
Forms and fields
All forms 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.
JavaScript
The use of Java script 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.
