Accessibility Policy of this web site

For your convenience, we have provided a few different style sheets:

• A low vision style sheet based on a configuration recommended by the BBC and the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
• A print-friendly style sheet that makes every page on the site print out very nicely.
• Our standard default style

To switch the style sheet, please choose either the low vision style or the default style. The print style will be automatically detected when you try to print.

Compliance

We are committed to making our web site accessible to all people, regardless of ability. To this end we have designed this website to follow guidelines set out by the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium). The W3C WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) produces accessibility guidelines that are an internationally recognised benchmark of accessibility.

In designing this site, we have applied appropriate WAI Priority 1 and Priority 2 criteria and a number of the WAI Priority 3 criteria.

Benefits of Compliance

The benefits of compliance with the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines include:

• Pages are fast to download, regardless of whether you are using broadband or a modem
• All pages validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict and work with a wide variety of browsers.
• All font sizes are relative, allowing users to change font size easily using their browser. Use your browsers sizing options to access this feature.
• If your browser or browsing device does not support cascading style sheets (CSS), the content of each page is still readable.
• There 'skip links' for users with visual impairment using screen readers.
• All pages will function without JavaScript
• All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT (i.e. alternative text) attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.
• Each page will print out in a highly readable format on a standard A4 sized page.