Accessibility information

When we designed this website in 2006, we aimed to make it accessible to a wide range of users and web browsers.

Please contact us if you have any problems using the site.

Technical information

Markup

  • Markup is written to conform to the XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD
  • All pages are validated using the W3C's HTML and CSS validators
  • Structural markup is used

Stylesheets

  • The markup on this site aims to separate content from presentation as far as possible
  • Stylesheets are used to handle layout and presentation

Browser compatibility

  • Extensive browser testing has been carried out to ensure the site works on as many browsers as possible
  • Styles are hidden from older browsers, but content is displayed in the correct order and all page elements are visible

Flexible design

  • All page elements (apart from borders which are generally set to 1px in width) are fully flexible and will expand or contract to fit a range of browser window sizes
  • No horizontal scrollbars appear, even at a screen resolution of 640x480
  • All text is resizeable
  • Colours can be changed by users
  • No device-dependent markup is used

Navigation

  • A simple and consistent approach to navigation is used
  • Keyboard-only navigation is supported through the use of accesskeys and a visible skip link
  • Link text clearly identifies the target page and where necessary, TITLE attributes provide additional information

Images

  • All images are optimised for fast download
  • Apart from the site logo and home page banner, no text is contained within images
  • All inline images have been assigned ALT attributes. Decorative images use a blank ALT attribute
  • Background images are only used for decorative purposes, so no text alternative is needed

Tables

  • Tables are only used to display tabular data
  • Structural markup is used to identify table headers
  • Table headers are associated through markup with corresponding data cells

Forms

  • The LABEL element is used to explicitly associate form inputs with their controls
  • Form controls are appropriately positioned in relation to the corresponding input field

Text content

  • Some of the content on this site is for a specialist audience and uses the jargon associated with this field. We use a plain language approach for all general content