Accessibility

We are currently testing this site and while most pages already pass the accessibility tests some may still fail. Please be patient whilst we continue with this task. If you do experience any problems with a page, feel free to tell us via the contact us form found in the contact us section.

The following tests have been undertaken to ensure that this website conforms to accessibility guidelines:

• Tested with Delorie's Lynx viewer, a text-mode web browser.
• Tested the colour contrast by printing pages in black and white.
• Tested with IBM Home Page Reader v3.0 (screen reader software).
• Tested with different screen resolutions - 800x600 to 1280x1024.
• Tested with different internet browsers - Internet Explorer 6 to 8, Opera 10, Mozilla Firefox 3, Safari, Netscape 6 to 9, Google Chrome, Flock, Lynx and WebbIE 3. 
• Tested with Thunder screen reader
• Tested with filters for colour blindness and greyscale coverage.
• Passed validation to W3C XHTML and CSS standards.
• Passed validation to WCAG v2 AAA standards.
• Passed Cynthia testing for Section 508, WCAG 1.0 P1, CLF.
• Without images - an alternative text for images is displayed instead(only for images that are of importance, i.e. content and descriptive images).
• With Javascript off - it still works, the content is available and makes sense i.e. content doesn't have to rely on mouse movements for partially sighted people.
• Without Cascading Style Sheets - it still works, the content is available and makes sense in case the end user does not have a CSS compliant internet browser.
• Narrowband connections - to see if site downloads quickly on a slow internet connection.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are quite extensive, but enabling the end user to re-size the browser window and the layout, and to change the font size and colours are important factors if you want to create an accessible website. The main reason for doing this is to make the site more user-friendly and legible for the end user. Please try and alter the site appearance by changing the browser settings under 'Tools' and 'Internet Options...'.

Access key assignments

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.