Accessibility

Using our website

We recognise the importance of providing a website that is accessible to all users. As such we have made every effort to ensure that our site can be used easily by people with disabilities. The site uses features operable on screenreader software and computer screens.

Accessibility

In January 2008 we were awarded the Segala opens a new window Trustmark for conformance to W3C's "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0".

Web pages that are within our control are compliant with all WCAG Single-A guidelines, as well as many checkpoints within Double-A and Triple-A. During 2008 we will be working to obtain at least AA accessibility on this site.

We recognise that improving the accessibility rating of the site benefits all of our customers. It leads to better coded, and therefore faster loading, pages, logical use of links and consistency of layout.

Accessibility features

We have introduced the following features to ensure the best use of our site by all of our users.

Access keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. We follow the UK government standard which is:

s - skip to content
1 - Jump to home page
3 - Jump to site map
4 - Jump to site search
7 - Jump to complaints procedure
8 - Jump to terms and conditions
9 - Jump to feedback form
0 - Jump to access key defaults (this page).

To use the access keys in Internet Explorer, hold Alt and press the shortcut key, then press Enter. In Firefox, hold Alt and Shift and press the shortcut key. On a Macintosh, press Control + an access key.

Navigation

A hidden menu has been placed at the beginning of each page to allow screen reader users to link to the main areas of the page.

A hidden link has also been provided at the beginning of each page to provide easy access to information on accessibility.

Headings and navigation menus

HTML heading tags are used to convey document structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles etc.

Navigation menus are marked up as HTML lists. This ensures that the number of links in the list is read out at the start and it can be skipped easily.

All images have alternative text for screenreaders, browsers which don't display images or browsers set not to display images.

All links have tool-tips. Where duplicate links occur on a page they access the same content. Accessibility keys have been included to aid accessibility (see above). Where a link opens an additional browser window, this is made explicit.

All labelling seeks to make sense out of context with its surrounding content.

Colours

We have taken care to ensure that the site's font and background colour combinations contrast significantly and are effective in ensuring information is still clear when viewed in different colour combinations.

If you wish to override the site's colours, you can do this by changing your browser settings to your own preference.

Stylesheets

This site uses cascading style sheets for all visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the use of structured semantic mark up ensures that the content of each page is still readable and clearly structured.

You can apply your own stylesheet onto this website by;

Internet Explorer
select Tools, then Internet Options, then Accessibility, next click on any or all 3 checkboxes to ignore colours, font styles or font sizes, in the same window you can change your style sheet by clicking the checkbox that says, 'format document using my style sheet' then browse to your style sheet and click OK.

In Firefox
select Tools, then Options and then select General, where you can specify your own colours and fonts.

JavaScript

The use of Javascript has been kept to a minimum. Where it is used, most content is still accessible if Javascript is turned off.

Useful links

If you would like to know more about accessibility and the Internet, you may be interested in the following websites:

There are also some handy tools which you can purchase or download for free, these include:

* JAWS - a screen reader for use with Windows.
* Lynx - a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
* Links - a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.