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Accessibility

This website has been designed to be accessible for the widest possible audience regardless of their ability. This includes making access as easy as possible for people with disabilities who may have special needs.

People with disabilities, such as a visual impairment, may use assistive technologies to use the Internet. Assistive technologies are products used by people with disabilities to help accomplish tasks that they cannot do easily otherwise.

Assistive technology

Assistive technology comes in many different forms, some of these include:

  • text browsers (e.g. Lynx)
  • screen readers
  • speech synthesis (speech output)
  • alternative keyboards or switches
  • Braille
  • screen magnifiers
  • sound notification
  • speech recognition
  • voice browsers

This website has been built so that people using the technologies listed above can access and use the information available.

How to use the keyboard to navigate the website

Keyboard operation is required for users who are unable to use the mouse. For example, users with limited hand use may not have the fine motor control required to position the mouse pointer accurately on objects displayed on the screen. Blind users cannot position the mouse pointer because they can’t see the screen.

The keyboard provides a precise, discrete method of navigating and selecting. Mobility impaired users using the keyboard can precisely navigate and select using the keyboard or assistive technology that emulates the keyboard.

  • Tab Index – the website has a tab index coded into each page to allow a sensible order for the keyboard navigation. This starts in the main content section and then moves through the navigation areas in the tab order.
  • Tab Key – use the ‘Tab’ key to move forward through the tab index on the page. To move backward hold ‘Shift’ and press the ‘Tab’ key. To activate a link when selected press the ‘Enter’ key.
  • Arrow / Cursor keys – for using radio buttons on a web page, select the first one with the tab key and then use the cursor / arrow up and down keys to move through the available radio buttons. To activate a link when selected press the ‘Enter’ key.
  • Space Bar – for using checkboxes on a web page, select the required checkboxes with the tab key and then use the ‘space bar’ to tick them. To activate a link when selected press the ‘Enter’ key.
  • Enter / Return key – To activate a link when selected press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ key.
How to change font size on your browser

If the text is too small to read you need to change your text size.

  • Firefox 2+, select ‘Text Size’ from the View menu and select either ‘increase’ or ‘decrease’ (reset with ‘normal’)
  • Look for similar functions in other browsers.
How the website complies with web accessibility standards

All of these pages have been validated for level A of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. As a result the pages will comply with the Disability Discrimination Act which ensures that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users.

Level A of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0This website conforms to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) level A.

For a full list of the checkpoints that we have addressed to reach this standard and make our web content accessible to people with disabilities, please see the guidelines area of the WAI website.

How the website complies with the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 (DDA)

The Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 (DDA) effectively places responsibility upon employers and suppliers of goods and services to provide reasonable adjustment and, more importantly, to remove any barriers that could result in discrimination.

Since 1999 the DDA has covered public facing websites and internal systems even giving examples in its Code of Practice such as: ‘An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the Act’.

As this website has been developed with AA accessible code it effectively complies to the Disability Discrimination Act.

How the website is built to work on all browsers

This website is built using code compliant with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards for XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0. The pages display correctly with currently available Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari on both Windows and Macintosh platforms.

The use of standard XHTML and CSS 2.0 code means that future versions of browsers will also display them correctly.

Valid XHTML 1.0 TransitionalXHTML stands for eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language which is the language or coding used to write web pages. It contains information about the pages structure, appearance and contents.

Valid CSS 2.0Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) – CSS is a simple mechanism for adding style, for example fonts, colours and layout to web documents.

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