Accessibility

Resizable text / ZOOM

To Zoom in hold the Ctrl key and press +, to zoom out hold the Ctrl key and press -. If your intrenet browser does not support this click here.

The site uses Cascading Style Sheets to style the text and this text has been configured to be resizable using the browser's resize settings. The text has been left justified, this maintains a consistent gap between words, this helps both users with mild visual impairments as well those who are using screen readers and/or magnification software as both pieces of software struggle to interpret the inconsistent gaps. Learn how to resize text and other handy functions.

What is Web Accessibility?

In recent years, the term for disabled access or accessibility is being increasingly used to describe how someone with a disability interacts with a website.

The needs that Web accessibility aims to address include:

Visual: Visual impairments including blindness, various common types of low vision and poor eyesight, various types of colour blindness;
Motor/Mobility: for example difficulty or inability to use the hands, including tremors, muscle slowness and loss of fine muscle control due to conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy or stroke;
Hearing: Deafness or hearing impairments, including individuals who are hard of hearing;
Seizures: Photoepileptic seizures caused by visual strobe or flashing effects;
Cognitive/Intellectual: Developmental disabilities, learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.), and cognitive disabilities of various origins, affecting memory, attention, developmental "maturity," problem-solving and logic skills.

When websites are correctly built and maintained using recognised standards, all of these users needs can be accommodated with little or no impact on the usability of the site for non-disabled users.

Alt Tags

All pictures and images within the site will be tagged with alternative text in a contextual format to describe the content of a picture. This is useful for text-based browsers or for users with visual impairments as it enables the picture to be described in words.

Contrast

We are working towards a site style that incorporates a strong contrast between background and foreground colours (specifically for text) for readability and clarity purposes.

No flickering animation

We have avoided the use of flickering, strobing or flashing animation which could be harmful to users who are susceptible to photoepileptic seizures.

Coding to Standards

This site has been built using code and technique’s that are compliant with W3C standards for XHTML. Whilst we strive to ensure that all pages remain compliant, this is a large site, with large amounts of data being uploaded on a daily basis. We must acknowledge that some pages will occasionally fail the compliancy tests, such pages will be investigated, recoded and rechecked