This section outlines some of the accessibility features that are provided for users and guidance on how to use them. Your web browser and operating system ‘Help’ should also have information on additional accessibility features.
Design Standards
This site was designed and built with the aim of meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA standard.
Browser Support
The site has been optimised to be viewed across multiple platforms and devices and to work with the following browsers:
- Chrome
- Edge
- Firefox
- Safari
- Android
Whilst we do everything we can to ensure the site works on multiple devices, the world of web browsers and technologies moves quickly. It is not possible to guarantee the site will work for all browsers past, current and future but we will always aim to ensure that the most popular browsers and devices (as indicated by user analytics) are fully usable. If you are using an older web browser, such as Internet Explorer, you may encounter difficulties with the website. We recommend downloading a more modern web browser or updating your browser to the latest version if possible.
Colour and fonts
The colour combinations have been checked to ensure the appropriate contrast and difference are present. In nearly all cases the text within the content pages has been set to relative sizes, which can be increased or decreased for more comfortable screen reading.
Accessible markup
We aim to use semantic markup as well as page landmarks and roles (ARIA) to help tools such as screen-readers understand the different areas of the page such as where the navigation is versus where the content is. We aim to use page landmarks and roles to guide such tools.
Navigation
HTML heading tags are used to convey document structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2, H3, H4 tags for subtitles, etc.
Text equivalents have been provided for every non-text element with ALT tags provided for all images and multi-media elements.
All forms fields follow a logical tab sequence to ensure easy navigation.
JavaScript
The use of JavaScript has been kept to an absolute minimum. Where it is used, all pages and processes should still accessible should JavaScript be turned off.
Copy and links
We have a policy to use blockquotes to only identify quotations and to ensure all links have been written to make sense when taken out of context.
Use of multimedia
We aim to label all images and include functionality for screen readers to describe the image. Text will be scalable, as will all pages themselves. We set a maximum width for blocks of text based on optimal readability standards.
Alternative formats
The website does include a number of PDF files, which we are unable to re-produce in alternative formats. We recommend that users download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat to view Adobe PDF files at: www.adobe.com. For further information about Adobe’s PDF accessibility, please visit: http://access.adobe.com
Compliance and issues
We use the WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool by WebAIM to help find problem areas, but ultimately we aim to be responsive to your needs. Please notify us of any specific problems you encounter, or any suggestions you have for improvement.