Your website could be in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act
if it is seen to discriminate against those with disabilities or impairments.
Questions & Answers
What does website accessibility mean?
Website accessibility means allowing people with visual,
aural, mental or physical impairments to use a website.
Does my website have to be accessible?
Yes
The Disability Discrimination Act states :
"Website owners should take 'reasonable steps' to make their
sites accessible by disabled users or provide a reasonable
alternative method of providing the service"
How will this affect the general usability of my website?
Compared to the old tables method of constructing
websites, a
W3C standards compliant website will inherently
be accessible.
Are there any benefits from having an accessible website?
Increased potential audience, by not turning away
around one in seven of the UK population.
Your website will be more easily indexed by search
engines - therefore more visitors.
Your website will generally download/display faster
than an inaccessible one.
Does adding accessibility/standards compliance to my
new website cost more?
There has been much debate in the world of web design
over the practicalities of access keys - with no definitive
answer.
We believe there is a significant likelihood
that any access keys specified on this (or any other
site) may conflict with any default keyboard commands
already in use by some browsers or assistive technologies,
possibly resulting in browser/system functionality or
instability.
Accessibility Options 0n This Site
Here are some options to adjust how this site works
for you.
To change text size :
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go
to "View" in the browser tool bar menu, select "Text
size" then select your preferred size - either larger
or smaller.
If you are using Mozilla Firefox, go to "View" in
the browser tool bar menu, select "Text size" then select
"Increase" or "Decrease".
To change text and background colours :
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go
to "Tools" in the browser tool bar menu, select "Internet
options". Now select "Colours". In the "Colours Panel",
uncheck "Use Windows colours" then select your preferred
colours for background and text. Now select "Accessibility"
and tick the box labelled "Ignore colours specified
on Web pages".
If you are using Mozilla Firefox, go to "Tools"
in the browser tool bar menu, select "Options", select
"Content" then select "Colours". You can now set your
preferred colour of text and background. Also uncheck
"Allow pages to choose their own colours, instead of
my selections above".
Viewing PDFs (Portable Document Format) :
Links to PDF's will open in a new browser window.
Did you know Adobe Reader can speak a page to you?
First save the PDF file to your computer.
Open the document.
Go to "View" in the tool bar menu. Select "Read out
loud" then select either
Read this page only or Read
to end of document.
Links to external websites will open in a new browser
window.
This site does not support the use of access keys
-
read why.
Need some help or support....simply use our support desk button below.
