Website Accessibility Statement
What it covers
This statement covers the steps which we take in order to ensure that our website is accessible to all visitors. This refers to our Access to Services Policy which covers all aspects of making our services accessible to all.
We are committed to making our online resources accessible to all visitors. We continually review our site and modify pages to remove accessibility problems for people with disabilities and to make information more accessible for all users. All of our content is checked for Plain English, and we aim to use a written style which is straightforward and understandable.
What does that mean in practice?
We follow a list of accessibility guidelines when designing web sites and their content. This includes:
- Maintain a standard layout and navigation system throughout
- Use headings, paragraphs, lists and other HTML (HyperText Markup Language) to create a logical document structure
- Allow visitors to resize all text
- Use plain backgrounds to improve the readability of text
- Use foreground and background colour combinations which have sufficient contrast and are not known to cause problems for people with visual impairments or colour-blindness
- Allow visitors a choice of contrasting foreground and background colours
- Use alt attributes on all images, and title or longdesc attributes where appropriate, and ensure that all alt, title and longdesc attributes are meaningful
- Ensure compatibility with screen readers, such as Browsealoud
- Design layouts to work satisfactorily at a range of screen resolutions
- Ensure all hyperlinks use descriptive and meaningful text, avoiding short-hand language like 'Click here'