Accessibility

We have worked hard to provide a website that is accessible to all user groups, including disabled visitors. We have implemented a number of key features on this website to make it easier to use for people with disabilities. Whilst we have made every effort to make this site comply with current accessibility standards you may also wish to review the accessibility features in your particular browser. For more detailed information about the compliance of this site see our standards compliance outline, which shows how we measure the accessibility of our site.

Accessibility features on this Website

The following features improve navigation for screen reader users, keyboard navigation and users of text-only browsers.

Navigation

A menu at the start of every page that allows you to jump directly to the key parts of the site provides continuity and the primary form of site navigation. Sighted people who use the keyboard to navigate will see these links appear on screen when using the Tab key to navigate through the page.

BETSIE

Betsie stands for BBC Education Text to Speech Internet Enhancer, and is a Perl script which is intended to alleviate some of the problems experienced by people using text to speech systems for web browsing. For further information on Betsie, please see the BBC's About Betsie website. You can access the whole of this site through Betsie by clicking on the text only link at the top or bottom of the page. Within Betsie you have control over font, type size, text colour and page colour.

Structured, semantic Markup

Headings and navigation menus

HTML heading tags are used to convey document structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags or greater for subtitles, and so on.

Images

All content images used in this site include descriptive alt attributes. Purely decorative graphics include empty alt attributes. Images used for headings are applied using style sheets – since the heading exists as text behind the graphic, alt attributes are unnecessary.

Colours

We have tried to ensure that colours used within the site are accessible for people with varying visual impairments, however we are not able to ensure that we have made provision for all eventualities. If you experience problems with colour on this site, try the text only option, and in Betsie, reset the text size and colour and background colour to meet your needs.

Font sizes

You may change the font size of this document to your preference through your browser:

In Internet Explorer, select View, then Text Size, and then your preferred size. In Netscape, select View, then Text Zoom, and then your preferred percentage size or in Mozilla, select view and choose either the Increase or decrease text size options.

Style sheets

This site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the use of structured semantic markup ensures that the content of each page is still readable and clearly structured.

Tables

Tables are only used for layout in certain instances, but wherever used, they conform to current WACG standards.

Forms

All forms follow a logical Tab sequence. Labels are associated with fields using HTML label tags.

Scripting

The site is fully accessible if scripting is unavailable.

Links

Linking text has been written to make sense out of context. Where appropriate, links have title attributes, which describe the link in greater detail, for example to advise you if the link will open in a new window.

Accessibility features in your Browser

Internet Explorer

Choose Help: Contents: Accessibility

Mozilla

Tools: Options: Advanced

Opera

Tool: Preferences

Netscape Navigator

Keyboard shortcuts:
http://www.netscape.ca/browser/netscape8/help/en/shortcuts.html
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility

In Netscape, you can specify your own fonts and colours by selecting Edit, Preferences and Appearance.

Standards Compliance

Our pages conform to Level AA compliance as specified by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and endorsed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). All pages validate as W3C HTML 4.0.1 and use structured semantic markup. The CSS also validates in accordance with current W3C guidelines. We have made every effort to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of 1995 with respect to the provision of online services, as required by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).