Web site accessibility

We aim to make this web site accessible to as many people as we can. We are constantly looking at ways we can improve this so if you are having difficulties in any way please contact us either by phone or using the contact form.

We recommend that where possible you update your browser to benefit from the modern assistive tools that are often included.

We have provided at the top right of each page the ability to change font sizes and contrast to make the site easier to use. In addition there is the option to have a spoken version of each page. More details of these options are set out below

The technical stuff

We provide this website service within the guidelines of the W3C initiative web standards. We have endeavoured to provide web pages that pass the strict HTML5 and XML standards set so that performance across a wide range of browser software is consistent.

Where possible we have included WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet
Applications) techniques to make dynamic content accessible for screen reader users and encourage semantically correct publishing.

From time to time these standards will change and we will adopt these new standards as they are agreed.

Display preferences

At the top right of every screen you will find the display preference options. These allow you to change the font size and background colour to suit your preference

These contrast options and text sizes have been tested to pass luminosity contrast ratio standards set out in guideline 1.4 of the W3C WCAG.

Once you have selected your preference this will be remembered the next time you access the website if you have cookies enabled.

Spoken version

Where possible we have included a spoken version of a webpage that will be available as a link towards the top right of the page. This software generates a mp3 sound file version of the webpage and will play in the page of modern web browsers, or in the default operating system media player when older browsers are used.