Website Accessibility

The design and production of this website is engineered with accessibility in mind, this means features like buttons are built with HTML/CSS without using graphics or images.

This website complies with W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) guidelines. These guidelines are separated into 14 checkpoints which can then be sub-divided into three priorities; where priority 1 must be satisfied, priority 2 should be satisfied and priority 3 be satisfied, to gain any level of compliance. Websites can be categorised by conformance, with level A meaning all priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied, level AA meaning all priority 2 checkpoints are satisfied and level AAA meaning all priority 3 checkpoints are satisfied. This website is designed and developed at least at level A with the majority being level AA. For further information go to the W3C Accessibility Guidelines.

An Introduction to Website Accessibility

The design and production of this website is engineered with accessibility in mind, this means features like buttons are built with HTML/CSS without using graphics or images.

This website totally complies with W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) guidelines. These guidelines are separated into 14 checkpoints which can then be sub-divided into three priorities; where priority 1 must be satisfied, priority 2 should be satisfied and priority 3 be satisfied, to gain any level of compliance. Websites can be categorised by conformance, with level A meaning all priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied, level AA meaning all priority 2 checkpoints are satisfied and level AAA meaning all priority 3 checkpoints are satisfied. This website is designed and developed at least at level A with the majority being level AA. For further information go to the W3C Accessibility Guidelines.

Use of Images

The images on this website have been supplied with alternative text attributes, also known as alt text, so whenever an image is used on a page it is also described in the alt text. This means that the image can be understood by text browsers and assistive technologies such as screen readers. If an image is simply for decoration, the text attribute for the image is left empty in order to comply with accepted best practice.

Where possible live text has been used rather than graphics to reduce page download time and to increase control over the text size.

Resizing Fonts and Browser Compatibility

This website uses font sizes that you can control using your web browser. It is possible to change the text size in Internet Explorer by selecting View > Text Size followed by your preferred text size ranging from 'Smallest' to 'Largest', with the default set to 'Medium'.

To change the text size in Mozilla Firefox, select View > Zoom followed by 'Zoom In' or 'Zoom Out' ensuring that ‘Zoom Text Only' has been selected. Select 'Reset' to return the text size to its default setting. The website's layout has been designed to fill the width of any browser and you can also resize it to suit your viewing preferences.

The website's has been compatibility tested for use with the following browsers IE 6, IE 7, Firefox 3.0+ and Safari 3.0.

There is also a text only version of this website which has been tested for browser and screen reader compatibility.

Print Page Options

A print page facility is provided on each page of the website and will print out at the corresponding selected font size. E.g. if you have selected large print the print page facility will print in large print.

Help Us to Help You

We always aim to meet the Priority A, AA, and where possible AAA checkpoints as set down in the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This website is also tested on a regular basis using a combination of automated tools and manual testing.