We aim to provide a website that is accessible to all visitors. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 states unambiguously that private and public sector web sites must be accessible with respect to the provision of services online. The layout takes into account users who are visually impaired or have difficulties using a mouse. It has been developed to be compatible with popular screen reading software, and can be navigated easily using just a keyboard. Please contact us if you wish to give us feedback so we can continue to improve the accessibility of this web site.
Conformance
We strive to conform, at a minimum, to Level AA compliance as specified by the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This also involves implementing a number of selected Priority 3 checkpoints. In general, the site conforms to WAI Level AA rating where HTML is used. Where documents are made available in other formats such as Adobe Acrobat, conformance has not been achieved.
Accessibility features
- Links are written to make sense when read out of context.
- All images used in this site have appropriate text equivalents.
- Cascading style sheets have been used for layout and presentation.
- Each page is constructed so that it can be read without style sheets.
- This site uses relative font sizes to enable the user to specify “text size” in visual browsers.
- All forms follow a logical Tab sequence.
- Labels are associated with fields in HTML forms.
- A site map has been included to provide information about the general layout of the site.
- Keyboard shortcuts have been provided to assist navigation (see below).
Keyboard shortcuts
To give better accessibility to users without a mouse, we have integrated keyboard shortcuts into our web site. These shortcuts include: 1 = Home 2 = What’s behind the ban? 3 = What the ban will mean for you 4 = Supporting the ban 5 = News 6 = Cymraeg – Welsh version of the page. A = Accessibility C = Contact us S = Sitemap To use these access keys, please follow the instructions below:
- Windows PC’s: press ‘Alt’ + ‘Shortcut’ will give focus to that specific link on the page. If you press return, you will then be taken to that page.
- Apple Mac’s: press ‘Control’ + ‘Shortcut’. will automatically send you to that specific page.
Increasing text size
To increase the size at which text is displayed you should simply adjust your browser’s settings.
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: go to the View menu, select Text Size and then either Larger or Largest.
- Firefox: go to the View menu, select Text Size and then either Increase Ctrl + +, Decrease Ctrl + – or Normal Ctrl + 0.
- Opera: go to the Tools menu, select Preferences then click on the Web pages tab. Select the normal font button. A dialogue box appears and provides options to increase/decrease font size, font type, weight and style.
- Netscape Navigator: go to the View menu and choose Increase Font until the text is the size you require.
Changing colours
Changing the site’s background colour can be particularly useful for users who rely on magnification technology as white can produce an uncomfortable glare. It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site. Both can be achieved by changing preferences in your browser:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: go to the Tools menu, select Internet Options, select Colors and make changes to text and background colours in the Colours panel.
- Firefox: go to the Tools menu, select Options, open the Content menu and select Colours. You can set the colour of text and background from here.
Accessibility references
- Disability Rights Commission
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
- RNIB “See it Right” Campaign
- Cabinet Office e-Government Unit
Web browsers
- Microsoft – Internet Explorer
- Mozilla – Firefox
- Apple – Safari
Assistive technology
- JAWS: screen reader
- Lynx: text web browser