Standards compliance
We are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and, in doing so, endeavour to ensure it conforms to level ’AA’ of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.
While we strive to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website. The secure areas of the site cannot be accessed through the Opera Browser and other browsers that share its User Agent (such as the text browser Lynx).
Navigation aids
All pages on the website provide the ability to search the site content.
The pages in the site follow a natural tab order. Where this is not the case, the tab order has been set in the code to force a user down the correct logical order of the page.
Access Keys
We maintain the current government standard access keys which are:
1 - home page
3 - site map
7 - complaints/contact us
8 - terms and conditions
9 - feedback
0 - accessibility help
s - skip to main content
The access key noted above should take the user to the main content of the page, bypassing repetitive content such as navigation.
The following table shows you how to use access keys for a variety of popular browsers.
| Browser |
How to use access keys |
| Internet Explorer 5+ (PC) |
Hold down the ALT key, press the number of the access key, release both keys then press ENTER |
| Internet Explorer 5+ (Mac) |
Hold down the CTRL key, press the number of the access key, |
| Firefox 2+ (PC and Mac) |
Hold down the SHIFT key and the ALT key and then press the number of the access key. |
| Firefox 1.5 (PC) |
Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key. |
| Firefox 1.5 (Mac) |
Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key. |
| Safari (Mac) |
Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key. |
| Opera 9 (PC and Mac) |
Hold SHIFT and the ESC key and the list of access keys will appear. |
Please note, this table is not exhaustive. If your browser is not mentioned here then please see your browser help.
Links
There are no "JavaScript:" pseudo-links. All links can be followed in any browser, even if scripting is turned off. There are no links that open new windows without warning.
Images
All content images used on the site have descriptive ALT attributes.
The site makes extensive use of Cascading Style Sheets and most images are in the ‘background’ of the page and not registered by screen readers. This is worth noting when using the ‘disable image’ feature of some browsers.
Text Sizes
All the text on the site is controlled by style sheet and is scaleable by altering your browser settings.
The following table describes how to change the size of the text displayed in a variety of popular browsers.
| Browser |
Increase text size |
Internet Explorer 7+
Firefox
Safari
Opera 9 |
Hold down the CTRL key and press + |
| Older Internet Explorer versions |
1. Go to view menu
2.Select text size
3.Select the size of text you would like
(smallest, small, larger or Largest) |
Please note, this table is not exhaustive. If your browser is not mentioned here then please see your browser help.
