We believe that this is an ongoing process and are constantly seeking to improve. Our website has been designed to adhere to best practice by following W3C standards. Pages have been built to comply with a minimum standard of WCAG 2.0 single ‘A’ guidelines.
Wherever possible we aim to extend this to ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ compliance. There are a number of steps we have taken to address accessibility needs that are detailed below:
Layout
The site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control all presentation and layout so that content is well structured and easily accessible via assistive devices.
Fonts
Text size can be increased or decreased in your browser by following these steps:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Choose the drop down menu at the top of the window of the browser marked “view”
- A list of options will appear in the drop down menu, choose “text size”
- Next another drop down menu should appear with options including “small”, “medium”, “large”, “largest”
- Select “largest”
2) Mozilla Firefox & Google Chrome
- Hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard and press the plus (+) key
- You will find that this will enlarge the text, to enlarge again repeat the procedure
- Keep repeating until the text is enlarged to your requirements If you need to make the text smaller press Ctrl on your keyboard and the minus ( – ) key
- Apple Safari
- Hold down the Apple Key and press the (+) key
- You will find that this will enlarge the text, to enlarge again repeat the procedure
- 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 press the (-) key
Images
Where possible, all images used for non-aesthetic reasons have descriptive alternative text.
Content
Content across the site has been written and formatted to make it as accessible as possible. This includes:
- The use of semantic headings which are descriptive and used to highlight sections of text
- Clear and easy to understand language
- Meaningful text used for all links
- No information is conveyed exclusively through the use of colour
Colour contrast
Wherever possible we have designed pages and chosen colours to be accessible to colour-blind users. Where contrast is limited, we are working towards a solution by reviewing our current colour palette.
Navigation aids
All pages across the site include a link to the homepage and, where possible, we have consistent global navigation. Breadcrumb trails are also used in most sections which include navigation aids in the left-hand column.
Rich media content
We are using YouTube to host our videos, descriptions and captioning. These captions can be accessed by clicking the ‘CC’ button within the video player.
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 site. Download Adobe Reader for free
Access keys
In order to avoid any conflict with personal access keys you may have set up on your computer, we have chosen not to install bespoke access keys on this site. Efforts have been made to ensure the site is as easy to navigate as possible.
Feedback
We are continually seeking to make improvements to the site and welcome any comments, suggestions, or feedback. If you are using adaptive technology and are having problems accessing the information on the site, please email [email protected] with details of the problem you encountered and the technology you are using.
Further information
More information on how to make your browsing experience easier is available for the BBC’s My Web My Way website. This includes advice and help for those who may benefit from making changes to their browser, operating system or computer to be able to view the web in a more accessible way.
