Website Accessibility Statement 

When developing and maintaining websites we like to make them as easy to use and accessible for everyone in all browsers regardless of whether or not you have any disabilities.

Our website aims to be compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers and should be easily navigable with the keyboard only. We have made every effort to adhere to accessibility standards and guidelines. We have tried to meet the requirements set out by the Worldwide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and the UK government guidelines for websites.

Whilst we test our website in several modern browsers, ensuring the website remains accessible is an on-going and involved process. We would like to make sure that all users of our website have a user friendly experience. If you experience any problems with the site or have any suggestions on how we may improve the experience for everyone, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Accessibility Features

• All images have text alternates (ALT attributes).
• Pages are designed to be fully functional, even with Javascript turned off.
• Most text uses relative font sizes so text can be enlarged or reduced using the text size options available in visual browsers.
• A text size button is provided at the top of every page to easily enlarge the main website text.
• The site can be navigated without a mouse through the use of Accesskeys.

Standards Compliance and Semantic Markup

Web standards are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of web content.

By designing and developing this website with these standards, we are able to deliver content that is accessible to more people and more types of devices. Websites developed using web standards will be forwards compatible with new technologies.

All pages are valid XHTML and use external CSS files which can be disabled or replaced by a user-defined layout and presentation.

Semantic Markup is used as much as possible to express web content in a descriptive manner, allowing differentiation between the meanings of phrases and structure in the content. The use of Semantic markup allows web content to be expressed not only in natural language but also in a format that can be understood and used by software agents such as screen readers.

Accesskeys

Accesskeys let you navigate around a website without using a mouse. You may find them a convenient way to move round the site without having to move your mouse at all. The Accesskeys implemented on our website follow the UK government recommendation.