Accessibility

Accessibility refers to the ease with which users can access information on a website.

Our website

We have taken several steps to make this website accessible, one of which is to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Level AA. There is more information about these below, and the standard we maintain is confirmed by the logo displayed in the right pane on our pages.

Another feature we have included is the option to view the site in three different styles - one which gives you a standard appearance, one with larger text, and a third with larger text and a black and yellow colour scheme. These are controlled by clicking the icons on the left of the bar below the banner.

One of the less obvious features is that the style of the pages is coded using Cascading Style Sheets. This means there is less information for your computer to load and keeps the appearance of the site consistent. Also, the file sizes of images have been kept small, so the pages will load faster on your computer and we make it clear in the text when a link will open in a new window.

These are just some of the features that will help you to get the most out of our website. In the next section there are specific links and general information about web accessibility.

Further Information

Below are listed other sources of information on making websites more accessible. All links will open in a new window.

General

The World Wide Web Consortium, known as the W3C, develops standards for websites, including the Web Contact Accessibility Guidelines. Further information can be found at http://www.w3c.org

Your internet browser has some built in tools for improving accessibility to websites. Use the help facility and search for accessibility to find out what yours has to offer.

Making websites easier to see

AbilityNet's website gives lots of information and how to guides for making websites easier to view. http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/

The Royal National Institute of the blind's website includes information on visual impairment and computer access. http://www.rnib.org.uk/

Making audio content easier to hear

The eSign project at UEA creates Avatars to act as virtual signers on webpages. You can download an avatar by following the link. http://www.visicast.cmp.uea.ac.uk/eSIGN/

The British Deaf Association has lots of useful information on sign language. http://www.signacademy.org.uk