Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.  This page describes how we have implemented this.

Access Keys

In a web browser an access key or accesskey allows a computer user to immediately jump to a specific part of a web page via the keyboard.

  • On Windows, with Internet Explorer, you can press the 'alt' key and the access key together, followed by the 'enter' key;
  • on Firefox, Netscape, Safari and Mozilla you don't need the 'enter' key;
  • with Opera you press 'shift', 'escape' and the access key together.

It is the same on Macintosh, except you press the 'ctrl' key instead of the 'alt' key.

The access keys are (following UK Government recommendation for access keys):

  • S = Skip Navigation
  • 1 = Homepage
  • 2 = News
  • 3 = Sitemap
  • 4 = Search
  • 8 = Terms and Conditions
  • 0 = Accessibilty

Standards Compliance

  • The pages on this website validate as XHTML 1.1 Strict.
  • All pages on the site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2, H3 and H4 tags for subtitles.

Navigation Aids

  • All pages on this website contain a link to the home page.
  • The design of the site has placed emphasis on consistency of navigation throughout the site.
  • The breadcrumb navigation system serves to reinforce awareness of the location of the page within the site, so you can move up and down, hierarchically through the site.
  • At the bottom of every page (with the exception of the home page), there is an extended site footer, which contains a condensed sitemap.