Accessibility Statement

We strive to ensure that our website is accessible to all by complying with the recommendations of the relevant industry standards and existing UK government legislation. This page provides details of what we have done to ensure standards compliance, and also illustrates some of the accessibility features contained within this site.

Accessibility Level and Testing Procedures

This website is accessible to the standards laid down by the WAI. We strive to attain level AA of the WCAG 1.0 document. Although it is impossible for any automated test to fully validate a website, we have carried out all the recommended manual checks, including testing with screen readers and text-only browsers. We hope that you have no problems using this site, but should you do so, please contact us and we will rectify the problem immediately.

Accessibility Features

If you navigate without the use of a mouse, please use your tab key as usual, or alternatively you may like to use your browser specific shortcuts, which for most modern browser includes screen reader support.

For our new site we have updated the Accessibilty options. In the top right hand corner of the site you will see a disability icon, you can use your tab key to access the icon, then press enter, then you can tab through all of the available options.

Among the many options available, you can change the font sizes (to make the text easier for you to read), activate the readable font (also to make the text easier for you to read), and select from the many contrast options to make the site high or low contrast according to your needs.

You can also switch images to greyscale, as well as removing animations and inverting colours.

If you prefer to view a text version of the pages, choose the “remove styles” option, this then removes all of the styling on the site, which is ideal for screen readers etc.

You can reset all of the options by choosing the “Clear Cookies” option, as this will return the site back to its default settings.

The accessibility options offered by our accessibility widget are in addition to any standard options offered by your own web browser.

Web browsers are constantly beeing updated and many now incorporate many accessibility features. It is not possible for us to list all of the browsers, and the options available in them, but a quick search in your favourite browser for your browser “Accessibility options” should find the info that you need.

Alternatively, refer to your browser’s help menu or see the external links section for help changing your settings in your specific web browser.

Opening and downloading Adobe Acrobat documents

Where we have attached a PDF document, we provide a link to the Adobe Acrobat website so that you can download the free Adobe Reader needed to open a PDF. The current version of Acrobat Reader has improved accessibility features and includes the facility to read the text out loud.

Please note that Adobe Acrobat documents can be converted back to plain text using Adobe’s Web-based conversion service.

Standards Compliance

All the code used on this site is as standards compliant as possible. Unfortunately as we now use the HTTPS secure protocol to encrypt data transfers, it is no longer possible to use the W3C html or the css validation service links as used on previous versions of our site, as the HTTPS protocol does not allow the “referer” header to be transmitted over a non-secure link.

However, if you wish to check any pages, you can go directly to the Validator Home Page to check the page based on its URL.

Having problems accessing our site? Contact us

If you find that you cannot access any of our content, please let us know. We will make every reasonable effort to either remove the barrier or provide the information in a format that you find acceptable.