Accessibility statement

'Everyone should be accommodated, especially when around 20 per cent of the population have special requirements. In fact, Microsoft said recently that nearly 50 per cent of people need to make some sort of adjustment to their system to interact with it' Tim Berners-Lee

As you would expect from a leading web auditing agency experienced in accessible web design, this site has been designed to be available to the widest audience possible, while offering a fully optimised user experience. Listed below are some of the features employed to make the site easier to use and more accessible for the majority of audiences. If you are experiencing problems using the site, or have any questions and comments about the site.s accessibility – or indeed, accessible website design – please let us know.

Screen resolution

The site has been designed to work at a minimum screen resolution of 800 × 600 pixels for improved accessibility.

Screen reader access

A screen reader is a web accessibility software programme often used by people with visual impairments to read web pages aloud. This website contains several features to support their usage: The first link on the page is a hidden .Jump to main page content. link that allows screen reader users to skip directly to the main content of the page, bypassing links and site graphics and the main menu. The second link is a hidden .Jump to main menu. link that jumps users to the main menu, bypassing links and site graphics.

Zoom layout

This site uses relative sizing which allows users to increase or decrease the text size and layout to suit their personal needs.

Web standards

Pages comply with most priority 1 (A) and 2 (AA) guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Initiative. Where possible and relevant, attempts have also been made to comply with priority 3 (AAA) guidelines.

Accesskeys

This website employs a sub-set of the recommended UK Government access keys standard:

• 1 – Home page
• 2 – News
• 3 – Site map
• 4 – Search
• 8 – Terms and conditions
• 9 – Contact us
• 0 – Accessibility and Access key details

Apple macintosh users

Macintosh users should press the Ctrl key in combination with the relevant access key.

Under Mac OS X 10, access keys are not supported by OmniWeb 4 or versions of Safari before 1.3.

Under Mac OS 9, access keys are not supported by Internet Explorer 4, Internet Explorer 4.5, Mozilla, Netscape 4 and Opera 5.

Microsoft windows users

Press the Alt key in combination with the relevant access key.

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or 6 press Alt and the relevant number/letter, then press the Enter key.

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4, Netscape version 6 or later, or Mozilla then press Alt and the relevant number/letter at the same time.

Unfortunately, access keys are not supported by Netscape 4 and Opera 6.

Published: 02 Feb 2007

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