Accessibility

The pages of this website are tested on a regular basis and hold W3C Triple A standards.

Introduction

We have endeavoured to remove barriers to this website so that disabled people can access information and use the website as easily as possible, with all the functionality that should be expected by us all:

'Skip over repeated elements' such as navigation menus
Put text equivalents for graphics
Designed the website so that it can be read by assistive technologies, such as screen reader software
Put accessible equivalents for functions such as 'email a friend'
Made links descriptive and make sense
Ensured that there is sufficient colour contrast between the text and background and that colour alone is not used to convey information
This site has been designed with style sheets to allow maximum flexibility
Header tags and table summaries have been effectively added to this site to help clarity of the website

As well as other techniques to assist accessibility.

Site Map

A text based site map has been provided to assist users to get an overall impression of the site quickly.

Links

All links will load in the same window unless it specifies that a new window will open. This applies to all PDF, powerpoint and word documents.

Skip Links

If you are using an audio browser (screen reader software):

Skip Logo: to skip over the logo and to go directly to the navigation menu
Skip Navigation: If you don't wish to have the navigation read out to you on any page, we have included a 'skip navigation' link as one of the first entries on the page. If you select this link you will be taken straight to the main content area.

Accesskeys and Forms

Bold fields are required. Underlined letters are accesskeys. To use the accesskeys in windows hold ALT & which ever key corresponds to the field you want to move to. For mac users hold CMD & which ever key corresponds to the field you want to move to.

PDF Documents

A number of documents available for viewing are in Adobe® Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF).

PDF format is used to preserve the content and layout of our publications. Publications in PDF can only be viewed and printed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader™. You can download and get help using the Acrobat Reader at the Adobe Systems, Inc. site. The downloadable Acrobat Reader software is available at no charge from Adobe.

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/reader (opens in new window)

People using screen-reading devices generally are unable to read documents directly in PDF format, until they have an accessibility plug-in installed on their system along with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This plug-in is available at no charge from Adobe and your screen reader may do this automatically. Adobe also has online tools that will convert PDF files to HTML on request. To get the plug-in and latest news about Adobe's accessibility tools and services, visit the Access Adobe site (opens in new window).

Word Files

You can view publications in Microsoft Word® (.doc) format if you have Word, version 97 or higher, installed on your computer. Word documents can also be viewed with many other word processing software programs. Additionally, [Microsoft offers a FREE Word file viewer (opens in new window) that you can download at its Microsoft Viewers site.

International Standards Met

This website conforms to W3C's "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0", available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT (opens in a new window), level Triple-A. Conformance to these Guidelines helps make the website more accessible to users with disabilities and will benefit all users.
On-line testing validation to Conformance Level "Triple-A" of web pages: all Priority 1, 2 and 3 checkpoints are satisfied
That the web page complies to international standards of HTML (the programming language behind the web)
That the web page meets Cascading Style sheet standards (the language that should be used for the presentation (styling) of a website
That the web page is viewed accurately on a text only Browser - we use Lynx

The website has been thoroughly tested

To ensure compliance to international standards, thereby guaranteeing that different browsers will render the web page as intended and that assistive technology (which is designed considering these standards) works well
With a text only browser (Lynx)
With Webxact (Watchfire) / Bobby (a program) to test the validity to accessibility (WAI) standards of web pages http://webxact.watchfire.com/ (opens in new window)
For colour contrast by printing in black and white and checking how readable the site is
Screen reader software
Different screen resolutions
Different platforms - MAC and PC
Different Browsers - Internet Explorer 5, 5.5, 6, 7 and Netscape Navigator 6, 7, Firefox 2
Without images - a text equivalent is displayed
With Javascript turned off - it still works, the content is available and makes sense
Without Cascading Style Sheets - it still works, the content is available and makes sense

Changing colours

Changing the site's background colour can be particularly useful for users who rely on magnification technology as white can produce an uncomfortable glare. It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site. Both can be achieved by changing preferences in your browser:

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu, select Internet Options, select Accessibility, and put a tick in the box next to "Ignore colors specified on web pages", then select OK. Now go to Colors, select Colors and make changes to text and background colours in the Colors panel

If you use Netscape Navigator, go to the Edit menu, select Preferences, open the Appearance menu and select Colors. You can set the colour of text and background from here.

If you use Opera, go to the File menu select Preferences, open the 'page style' (under fonts and colours). Ensure 'user mode' options use own settings (default settings). Now go into fonts and colours and you can change the colour options. Select 'View' then select 'Style' then select 'user mode'.

If you use Firefox, go to the Tools menus select options, click on the content tab and then on the colours button and change the colour options to suit your needs. Click ok to close the pop up window.

Your Feedback

We hope you will find this site useful and easy to access. If you encounter any problems - please let us know so we can endeavour to put it right or if you have any suggestions for improvement, so we can consider incorporating them.