Accessibility

Aids to operating this website

Menu systems

The menu systems of this site are designed to be highly accessible, and utilise clean structural code which provides context-sensitive navigation around the website. Each navigation area has a specific purpose and reflects a level of the website’s hierarchy.

Site map

This site has a fully automated hierarchical site map which you can access via the footer. The site map is designed to communicate the hierarchical structure of the website and provide quick access to all pages.

Search

The search facility of this website provides an alternative route to finding information across the whole site. This searches all live content including the text of PDFs. The search results pages are designed to work well on normal browsers and assistive technology, with additional information about each page (type of page, date last updated and so forth) being available in the code of the results page.

Breadcrumb trail

The breadcrumb trail on this website is designed to assist with orientation and navigation. You should use this to help find your way around the site and may use it to navigate back to relevant higher-level pages once you are deeper within the site.

Auto title

All pages are set to have an automatic ‘heading 1’ and page title tag. This allows you to identify quickly the purpose of a given page using a web browser or assistive technology.

Text only link

You will find a text only link at the bottom of all pages. This allows you to view a high contrast and low-bandwidth version of the website where the code has been re-arranged and optimised for assistive technology.

Prominent contact information

We have provided prominent contact information on this site in order to make ourselves available to answer any questions.

Steps taken to ensure our site is accessible

Design

In commissioning the design of this website, we have made accessibility a clear requirement from the outset. This has been at the forefront of our minds in reviewing all design mock-ups and we have taken guidance where appropriate on ensuring our design facilitates an accessible website.

Technology

This website is built using an accessible Content Management System (WordPress) which we chose after a careful selection process.

The Content Management System provides the technical framework which underpins all of the information published on this site, and as such, built-in accessibility is important.

We have used the Content Management System in a fashion which does not undermine its intrinsically accessible technical foundation; we have used pre-tested and compliant modules within the system wherever possible and we have taken time to research the accessibility features of the system and incorporated these carefully within our site in a fashion which we believe makes good use of the technology.

Build

The site has been built by Infused Media using industry-recognised best-practice techniques and state-of-the-art build methods. We selected a team we felt had the necessary experience and expertise to help us reach high levels of compliance.

All work has been thoroughly quality tested using a checklist which incorporates modern best-practice and current international technical guidelines on accessibility (under the Web Accessibility Initiative, of the World Wide Web Consortium).

The templates for this website have undergone machine accessibility testing as well as real-life human accessibility testing and a range of changes were incorporated into the build of the website to assist with compliance.

Code

The website has been developed to adhere to coding conventions corresponding with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and is being upgraded to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) guidelines.

The website templates have been successfully validated to XHTML 1.0 strict.

Changing text size and contrast

Buttons are placed at the top of each page which allow you to increase or decrease the text size and change the contrast settings of the page.

This website has also been created in a way which allows you to easily make the text size larger or smaller via your browser settings. While some browsers will allow you to magnify the whole page, you can follow the instructions below to change the text size.

Internet Explorer

• Click ‘View’ to open the View menu or press ‘Alt’ and ‘V’
• Select the ‘Text Size’ option or select by pressing ‘X’
• Choose your preferred text size using your mouse or use the up and down arrow keys
• Click to select the text size or press ‘Enter’
• The text size should change to reflect your choice

Firefox

• Click ‘View’ to open the View menu
• Select the ‘Text Size’ option
• Select ‘Increase’ or ‘Decrease’
• You can also press Ctrl– or Ctrl+ to decrease or increase text size
• The text on our site should change to reflect your choice

Safari

• Click ‘View’ to open the View menu
• Click on ‘Make Text Bigger’ or ‘Make Text Smaller’ or to use the keyboard shortcuts select ‘Apple’ and ‘+’ (plus) or ‘Apple’ and ‘-‘ (minus)

If your mouse has a scroll wheel in the centre of the right and left click buttons, hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key on the keyboard and scroll it up and down, the text size will then increase and decrease. This works in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Windows accessibility

Windows has various computer settings you can choose from to enhance your experience of our website. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Accessibility Options. You can select options to change your keyboard, display and mouse settings.

Accessibility statement

Read our full accessibility statement.