­Accessibility Statement

Colours

We have taken care to ensure the colour contrasts under our control meet accessibility guidelines for text and buttons. We do not use colour alone to convey information. You can use Windows or Mac settings as well as browser settings and free browser plug-ins (such as HighContrast or ScreenShader) to change the background colour/contrast.

Magnification

The content is designed to be responsive. This means you can magnify in the browser up to 400% (using Control and +) without having to scroll left and right and without loss of functionality. The default text size can be increased up to 200% using browser settings without loss of functionality.

Multiple routes consistently organised: Navigation menus are consistently located at the top of each page, and a breadcrumb menu is also available, showing the path to each page, enabling users to easily go back by level. There are multiple other ways to navigate around the site, including side navigation, footer navigation, in page card links, in page text links, search facility, and news paging system. Navigation systems are templated and consistent. Site search is available in the same location in the header on all pages. Supplementary links are available in the widget area on the right.

We have included invisible labels (ARIA) to help screen reader users make best use of navigation features. Landmarks can be used by assistive technology to quickly identify and navigate to large sections of the document and are used to clearly indicate content areas by type. All page content is included in landmarks.

A Skip to Main Content link at the top of each page makes moving round the site much more effective for keyboard only users.

Hyperlink text is unique and meaningful to aid navigation by screen reader users. All links are contextualised so can be understood without any additional contextual information being needed. The More Info tabs on the resource page (which appear to be duplicates) visually reference the title above in their label so they are read out to the screen reader user as More Info [Resource Name] and are therefore all unique.

To reduce confusion, links to pages open in the same windows. If this is unavoidable, the user is notified of this behaviour prior to using the link e.g. through a tooltip or explanatory text as part of, or near, the link element. Some pages, like the resource page, allow you to search content using filters. In this case, the target PDF file will open in a new window so that the filters do not reset. For these links a title has been added to notify users of this.

All buttons and icons have available content in the form of html text, alt text or an additional aria label.

After completing a search, the keyboard user is returned directly to the location of the search results. Headings are used correctly on all pages and in the navigation mega menu to facilitate in-page navigation using the H short cut key available to most screen reader users.

Videos

All videos have accurate captions and, where appropriate, visual content on the screen is described. All video content is embedded using the YouTube media player, which is keyboard accessible and can be operated without a mouse. It has audio controls, play controls, and speed controls.

Images

Decorative images have been marked as such. Other images have been given an appropriate description. Please note that with some screen-reading software, Image Captions are read out before the Image Description/Alternative Text.

Photosensitivity

We have tested all videos using the Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT) test, and no videos have been uploaded with issues.

You can navigate the entire site and operate all its features using either a mouse or a keyboard. The relevant keys are the Tab key, Shift+Tab (to go back), the Spacebar, Enter key, Escape key and the arrow keys. The current keyboard focus is clearly visible as you tab around the content. Similar controls may be needed for navigating through tab content, but again, this will depend on the keyboard set-up or screenreader controls.

All the text-based content can be accessed via text to speech tools. This includes:

• commercial tools,
• built in browser tools (such as Read aloud in Microsoft Edge),
• free text-to-speech plug-ins such as Selection Reader or Read aloud.