Website Accessbility
This site has been designed with a view to passing the
accessibility guidelines laid down by the
World Wide Web Consortium
![[External Link]](/images/external.gif)
(W3C)
as part of their
Web Content Accessibility Initiative
.
These guidelines are designed to ensure that websites work on many platforms
and can be understood by as many people as possible,
especially those with disabilities. As a part of this effort, this
site has been designed and validated against the
W3C's
XHTML
and CSS standards.
Ease of Use for Visually Impaired Users
The site uses standard method for layouts, using tables only to display
tabular content. As a result it is possible to browse through the site in
a logical fashion, even using a text-browser (the site has been tested
with Lynx
and
Links
).
Access keys[1] are provided to allow users
quickly navigate to primary site pages. High contrast colour combinations
are used for those with visual difficulties, including colour deficits
(e.g. "colour-blindness").
The page presented to users initially will scale in a sane manner to fit the user's browser settings, and for those with especially poor vision a simplified, high-contrast version of the site is made available. This can be accessed using the standard Alternate Stylesheet [2] mechanism where supported, and JavaScript links are available to make the switch where this is not supported.
A Gentle Browsing Experience
The site strives to be as accessible to possible to as many people as
possible. There are no distracting animations, or any flashes in
colour, so the site presents no risk to those with epilepsy. Content
is structured to ease readability, although given the technical nature
of our audience it cannot be excessively simplified. We do provide
meta-links to aid casual users find certain pages quickly, and have
a Search facility as recommended by the
W3C
.
Conformance to Accessibility Standards
There are 14 accessibility guidelines set by the,
W3C
each of which are
broken down into checkpoints. There are 17 Priority One checkpoints,
29 Priority Two checkpoints and 19 Priority Three checkpoints.
To qualifiy for a Single-A accessibility rating a site must pass
all Priority One checkpoints. To qualify for a Double-A accessibility
rating a site must pass all Priority One and Two checkpoints.
Finally, to achieve the highest rating of all, a Triple-A
accessibility rating, a site must pass all checkpoints.
When viewed with Internet Explorer this site passes all checkpoints
except
checkpoint 3.4,
a Priority Two checkpoint. It thus qualifies for a Single-A rating.
When viewed in other browsers such as
Opera
,
Mozilla
based browsers (such as
Netscape
,
Firefox
and
Camino
)
and
WebCore
based browsers
(such as Apple Safari
and
Konqueror
) which have superior
standards compliance, the site arguably achieves a Triple-A rating. Again
checkpoint 3.4
is somewhat in question; however it is the opinion of the site maintainers
that the site passes this checkpoint.
For a full list of the guidelines and this site's conformance to each, consult the Guidelines Conformance document.
Further Information
For more on the guidelines and their significance, consult the
Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines
document published by the
World Wide Web Consortium
.
- An access key is a keyboard shortcut which allows to activate a link. On Internet Explorer, you hold down [Alt] and press the appropriate key, and then press enter. On most other browsers you just hold down [Alt] and press the key. The access keys for each link is indicated in the menu-bar at the bottom of each page. In the standard edition the access keys are underlined.
- All major browsers, with the exception of those produced by Microsoft, support the alternate stylesheet standard, which allows website editors to provide a range of page styles to users. On most browsers these alternate styles can be selected via the View menu. E.g. using Netscape you select the View menu and then pick the style from the Use Style sub-menu. Users of the Firefox browser can select the themes from a small icon at the bottom left-hand corner of their window.