Access Keys:

This website has been designed with ‘Access Keys’ on our main links. This means people who struggle to use a mouse can simply use their keyboard to navigate the website.

To use access keys in Internet Explorer press the ‘Alt’ key on your keyboard and then the corresponding letter. For example, to go to the home page, press ‘Alt’ and ‘H’ on the keyboard.

To use access keys in Firefox press the ‘Alt’ and ‘Shift’ key on your keyboard and then the corresponding letter. For example, to go to the home page press ‘Alt’, ‘Shift’ and ‘H’ on the keyboard.

In the table below the access keys for each link are shown. Bookmark this page for an easy reference when browsing this website.

Text Resize:

To resize the text on a webpage follow these actions:

In Internet Explorer, go to View > Text size and select your desired text size setting (e.g. larger, smaller).

In Firefox, go to View > Text size and increase/decrease using Ctrl and + or -

Alternatively if you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can hold down Ctrl and scroll back or forth to increase or decrease the font size in both IE and Firefox.

RSS:

RSS or ‘Really Simple Syndication’ is always shown with the following symbol:

This allows for the latest headlines reported on the website to be displayed to your computer with out having to actually visit the website. It then gives you the option to navigate to the page where the news is posted and read the entire post.

Using programs such as Feedreader and Firefox 2.0 the RSS feed, along with all the others you’ve signed up for, are displayed in one place for you to view.

Design:

This website has been developed to be accessible for the majority of web surfers and has been designed with the following in mind:

• No tables - The website is designed one hundred percent in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to allow for maximum compatibility across different browsers and operating systems.
• The website can be viewed in a window the minimum size of 640x480, try resizing it! This means people using older computer systems and screens can still view the website.
• Colours - The website is designed so colours do not conflict with each other. The simple clean design allows for an easy and pleasurable viewing experience.
• Images -The website is designed with minimal images to allow screen readers and imageless browsers to still be able to view the website.
• Alternative text and titles - All links and images used on the website come with a title or alternative text. This means when an image is not shown an appropriate description of the image is shown instead. When hovering over a link a title of where of the link is also shown.
• No frames and absolutely no pop-ups are used in this website.
• Easy to find information - No information is more than two clicks away and is easy to read and understand.
• Loading times - The website loads in under eight seconds for people still on 56K modems. For those of you with broadband the website loads in under two seconds.

Valid Coding:

You may see at the bottom of each page three images or links. These show that the website has both valid XHTML 1.1 and CSS 2 (web programming languages) and that the webmaster feels the content meets the Web Accessibility Initiative and Section 508 international guidelines.

What do they mean?

The first image, as shown below, shows that the website has valid XHTML 1.1 coding (Extensible HyperText Markup Language). This means the programming behind the website meets the standards laid out by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and that the website will display the same for all standard compliant browsers (e.g. Firefox).

To test the site yourself visit the XHTML 1.1 validator.

The second image, as shown below, shows that the website has valid CSS 2 stylesheets (Cascading Style Sheets). This means the styles behind the website meet the standards laid out by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and that the website will display the same for all standard compliant browsers (e.g. Firefox).

To test the site yourself visit the CSS validtor.

The final image, as shown below, verifies that the webmaster claims conformance to Web Contact Accessibility Guidelines including all Priority One and Priority Two checkpoints defined in the Guidelines.

To read the WCAG guidelines visit the W3C Guidelines page.

To test the site against Priority One, Two and Three visit the Cynthia WCAG validation service.

To test the site against Section 508 visit the Cynthia Section 508 validation service.