Accessibility Statement

 

The site has been designed to adhere to best practice, working towards being perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

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Should you have any suggestions to improve the accessibility of the site, please let us know using the contact form by clicking here.

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Clicking will open the contact form.

 

There are a number of steps we have taken to address accessibility needs:

 

Fonts

All font sizes are relative, with the exception of graphical text which is used only minimally. Text size can be increased or decreased in your web browser by following these steps:

 

Windows browsers:

1. Open your preferred web browser (applies to Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome)

2. Hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard and press the plus (+) key

3. You will find that this will enlarge the text - to enlarge again repeat the procedure

4. Keep repeating until the text is enlarged to your requirements

5. If you need to make the text smaller press ctrl on your keyboard and the minus ( – ) key

 

Apple browsers:

1. Open your preferred web browser (applies to Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome)

2. Hold down the Apple key [⌘] on your keyboard and press the plus (+) key

3. You will find that this will enlarge the text - to enlarge again repeat the procedure

4. Keep repeating until the text is enlarged to your requirements If you need to make the text smaller press the Apple key [⌘] on your keyboard and the minus ( – ) key

 

Colour

To aid readability, colours on the website can be changed by altering the browser setting for text and background colours in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. In Google Chrome a browser extension can be used to change colours. Other browsers have equivalent options.

 

The appearance of an operating system can also be changed via a system setting: macOS, iOS and Android let you invert the colours and change to grayscale. Windows gives many more options to alter the colours of elements.

 

Third party software can also change website colours, including some screen magnifiers.

 

Content

Content across the site has been written and formatted to make it as accessible as possible. This includes:

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• Clear and easy to understand language on the main information pages. We have used the Hemingway Editor to ensure a good level of readability.

• Meaningful text used for all links

• No information is conveyed exclusively through the use of colour

 

Document downloads

There are a number of PDF documents available for download across the site. You can find out more about how to configure the free Adobe Reader software to obtain greater access to PDF files by visiting the Adobe website.

 

Alt Text

We use textual descriptions of images, known as alt text, to help visually impaired users better understand the context of the photos on our website.

 

Full Keyboard Functionality

All parts of our website are fully operable with a keyboard.

 

Automatic DOM Order

Our website has been designed so the DOM (document object model) is automatically arranged, so visitors who rely on a keyboard and screen readers can navigate the site.

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Heading Tags

Heading tags help users who use screen readers understand how our site is organised in order to present the content.

 

Correct Semantics 

Every component of our website has the correct semantics built in, making it easier for people to understand our content.

 

Site Language Definition

Our site has been automatically rendered with the correct language so screen readers can understand our content.

 

Smart Focus Ring

There are visual indicators to help keyboard users navigate our site. Smart focus rings automatically appear when a keyboard is being used, and these feature dual colours so they’re always visible no matter what the background colour of a particular page.

 

ARIA Attributes

Built-in ARIA attributes on our website provide enriched accessible user experience.

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a set of attributes that define ways to make web content more accessible to those who use assistive technologies (AT). These include screen readers, magnifiers and text-to-speech applications.

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