Accessibility

Our website has been developed to meet current good practice in web accessibility. In particular we aim to maintain it so that it complies with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines to at least level A compliance.

The structure of the website has been designed to make it as easy to navigate as possible and screen reader users can 'skip' the navigation links by using 'skipnav'. There is a site map of the website which can help you navigate around the site.

The website includes a number of accessibility features which are explained below. We hope these features will allow users with disabilities, including those who are blind or partially sighted, to access the information they want.

Changing text size

All the text in this website can be resized. This means that users can set their preferences to a text size that is comfortable for them. To do this: select View on your toolbar > select Text Size from the menu > select the size you require.

Colours and contrast

We have considered the needs of users who are visually impaired by selecting colour combinations with sufficient contrast between foreground and background.

Alternative attributes

All images in this site use alternative ("alt") attributes. These are alternative text descriptions of the image. These attributes are particularly important for partially sighted and blind users.

Links

There are a number of links to other websites from this site, as well as links to other pages within the site and to PDF documents. Where we include a link we try to make sure there is an appropriate description of where the link leads. This means that a screen reader can be used to read out just the page links. We avoid using ‘click here’ as this gives no details of where the link leads.

Tabbing

If you have difficulties using a mouse you can navigate through the site using the Tab key. The tab index is designed so that it runs through the page links in a logical order. We also use Access Keys to enable navigation through the site without using a mouse.

Use of style sheets

This site makes use of stylesheets to control the visual design, colour scheme and fonts. Because the website employs stylesheets, users can view pages using their preferred settings. People with dyslexia, for example, may have a preferred typeface or background colour to improve readability. A separate stylesheet is also used to control the appearance of printed pages. When you print a page from this website, the page navigation will not be included, leaving more space for the important information.

Access Keys

This section explains how people who have difficulty using a computer mouse can reach certain areas of the website using special combinations of keys known as Access Keys. Each of the main areas of the web site has an Access Key assigned to it. This means that with most browsers you can use the keyboard to jump to any main area from anywhere else in the site. Access Keys work slightly differently on Macs and PCs. Below is a list of the main areas of the site, and the keyboard commands that will jump to them.

'Alt + (number) then Enter' means that you must press the Alt key and the relevant number key at the same time, release them, then press the Enter (or Return) key.

'Ctrl + (number)' means that you must press the ctrl key and the relevant numbered key at the same time.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about how we could improve the site to make it even easier to use, please contact us by emailing the web manager at museumwebmaster@uffington.net