We are actively working to increase the accessibility and
usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the
available standards and guidelines.
Web Accessibility Initiative
This website strives to achieve Triple-A accessibility of the
World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0), employing best practice techniques where
certain Priority 3 checkpoints have become outdated.
The WCAG 1.0 explain how to make web content more accessible for
people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will
help make the web more user friendly for all people.
W3C Standards
This site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards
forXHTMLandCSS. The site displays correctly in current browsers and
using standards compliantXHTML/CSScode means any future browsers
will also display it correctly.
Exceptions
Whilst Our site complies with known accessibility and usability
guidelines, it is not always possible to do so to the letter of
each checkpoint. Browsers and access technologies have outgrown
many of the difficulties that once needed guidelines to overcome
them, rendering some checkpoints obsolete.
In light of this, we are continually developing solutions that
ensure the website conforms to the spirit of each checkpoint,
bringing together a high standard of practical accessibility and
usability throughout the website. The following exceptions are also
in line with the new version of the accessibility guidelines to be
released soon.
Pre-filled form fields
Checkpoint 10.4 ofWCAG 1.0 recommends that
until user agents (such as browsers or screen readers) are capable
of recognising text fields that do not contain default text, text
fields in forms should be pre-filled with text.
User testing, combined with evidence from our web stats, show
that this is no longer a necessity for accessibility. Research has
in fact shown that pre-filled text fields can cause difficulties
for some modern screen readers, therefore we do not include
them.
Access keys
Checkpoint 9.5 recommends providing keyboard
shortcuts to important links, often called "access keys". However,
these have also caused problems, and our own and other people's
testing have demonstrated that they are best left off public
websites.
Should you experience any difficulty in using this website,
please contact
us