Website Help[2]

This website has been designed to be accessible - do you know you can make the text on your browser bigger? If you do that, this website will continue to work OK.

Access Keys For This Site

The access keys selected for this site are based on those prescribed by the UK government for their websites - these are some of the most comprehensive standards available presently. These and other standards are discussed on Clagnut.

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.

Pages on this site have the following access keys - often denoted within squared brackets throughout the site as a reminder, eg [1] shows that Alt+1 (PC) or Ctrl+1 (Mac) will take you 'Home'.

  • S - Skip navigation
  • 1 - Home
  • 2 - What's New
  • 4 - Search
  • 6 - Help (same meaning as '0' here )
  • 8 - Terms and Conditions
  • 9 - Feedback
  • 0 - Access Key Details

Universal Design

This website has been designed to be universally accessible. Most new buildings have a ramp, in addition to steps, to ensure they are universally accessible and nobody is needlessly excluded because of a disability. The same should be true of websites but instead of the ramp, various small design changes are needed to ensure universal access. On this website you can:

  • increase the text font size you use to view the page
  • use access keys to navigate to key parts of the screen so you don't need the mouse
  • skip the navigation and go right to the content (if you are using a screen reading device)

It's worth noting that the majority of people registered blind (70% in the UK) use some remaining partial sight to view a web page - so ensuring font sizes can be increased is a very important consideration for helping blind people use the web.

You can find out much more about making your website accessible from a great website called www.diveintoaccessibility.org - of particular use are the explanations of how people with different disabilities use the web.

Validation and Accreditation

As part of ensuring this website is accessible the code has been validated as as XHTML 1.0 Strict with valid CSS. The accessibility of this site has been verified through the use of the Bobby tool and gained a 'AA' rating, as well as a regulation 508 rating. It is believed to also conform to WAI accessibility standards but there is currently no automated tool to test this.

Feedback Please

If you know a way to make this website even more accessible, or if you have trouble accessing it for any reason, I would be very interested to hear from you,