We have done our best to make our website as accessible as possible, and we’ve done this by adhering sensibly and practically to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, the web’s governing body).
WCAG 2.0 is a set of checkpoints designed to ensure that websites are designed and written properly. For example:
- Images have alternative text (so if you can’t see the image you can still read the text).
- Colour contrast between foreground and background is sufficiently strong.
- Text resizes according to user preference.
- Headings are correctly used (they’re not just ordinary text made to look big and bold).
- Links make sense by themselves (e.g. no instances of links that say ‘Click here’ or ‘More…’).
- Tables are used for laying out tabular information and have proper headings and summaries.
- Visual presentation is defined in ‘stylesheets’ and is not embedded in the pages.
For those familiar with the WCAG, we’ve aimed for AA compliance but have not adhered to some checkpoints that are no longer relevant or have been demonstrated to hinder accessibility.
Disabled user-testing
Prior to launching this site we partnered with the Digital Accessibility Centre to conduct accessibility testing by disabled users. Their testing provided us with a detailed report with recommendations for improvement. We have implemented those recommendations and plan to work with the Digital Accessibility Centre as we continue to develop this site in the future. We will be enhancing the accessibility of the carousels as part of our roadmap for continuing improvements. Please also note that third party software products used on the site were not included in the scope of the accessibility audit.
Recite Me
We have partnered with accessibility software specialist Recite Me to include their accessibility and language toolbar on our site. If you activate the toolbar which is located at the top of each page, you can use it to change the colour, font or language settings of the site to the combination that best suits your access and language requirements.
Recite Me has a broad range of features and it will read out the text, magnify it or provide a reading ruler or dictionary. If you use Recite Me on our site, your settings will be remembered the next time you visit.
Feedback
If you have any problems with the accessibility of this site or suggestions for improvement then please do not hesitate to contact us. We will always do what we can to make this site easier for everyone to use.
