Our aim is to make our website as accessible as possible to the widest range of people. This means considering the specific needs of not only those with visual or motor impairments, learning difficulties and other forms of disability, but also different browser technology and Internet connection speeds.
How Accessible is this Site?
To this end, we have endeavoured to comply with the most widely accepted guidelines for the construction of accessible web sites specified by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Their Website defines three levels of accessibility, each progressively more demanding. The most basic level of accessibility is Priority 1 (level A compliance) followed by Priority 2 and 3 (levels AA and AAA).
This site complies with all Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints and where possible Priority 3. We are aware however, that a number of the checkpoints are subjective and there may be instances where interpretation may vary.
This site also validates to W3C specifications on eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) 1.1 and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). In addition, any text effects degrade to a readable format should JavaScript be disabled on a user’s browser.
Access Keys
We have deliberately chosen not to use access keys on this site. We feel that keyboard shortcut keys place an unnecessary burden on the memory of the user and that they ultimately replicate functionality already possessed by screen reader technologies.
We have chosen to look towards the upcoming WCAG v2.0, where the implementation of access keys is not a featured checkpoint.