Our Accessibility Statement
We are committed to providing a website that is, regardless of technology or ability, accessible to everybody.
We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our websites and aim to meet current web standards and guidelines.
The web pages in this site are designed to be easy to use, the information is structured in a meaningful way, headers are used throughout and we have kept our navigation links in ordered lists so that you can find or skip them easily.
Web Accessibility Initiative
This website strives to achieve “Double-A” accessibility as set out by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).
The WCAG 2.0 explains how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. By complying with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly for all people.
Browser Compatibility
This site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards for xHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The site displays correctly in current browsers and is compatible with the majority of browsers released since 2005. It uses standards compliant xHTML/CSS code, meaning any future browsers should also display correctly. However, we have designed our site for optimal viewing on the following browsers:
PCs
Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 8 and upwards
Mozilla Firefox Version 3 and upwards
Chrome 9 and upwards
Chrome on Android
Mac Safari
iPad and iPhone, and other mobile devices
Features
Links
We currently utilise pop-ups within our website. Going forward we will try and minimize the use of pop-ups and if utilised integrate a pop-up icon to advise users through the use of a title and alt tag that content will open in a new window.
Images
All content images used in this site include descriptive alt attributes. Purely decorative graphics include empty alt attributes.
Colours
We have checked the site’s font and background colour combinations against different colour blindness conditions and ensured that all information is still clear.
There is an option for each user to increase or decrease the font size being used on the site.
in Internet Explorer, select View, then Text Size, and then your preference size
in Firefox select View, then Text Zoom, and increase the size up to two steps
in Safari click on the large A button to increase the size up to two steps
Print Friendly
Our ‘print friendly’ option removes navigation from the printed page as well as background colours allowing you to print only the information you want in an easily readable format. This option can be found in the “File” section of most modern browsers.
Style Sheets
This site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for visual layout. If your browser device does not support stylesheets at all, the use of structured semantic mark-up ensures that the content of each page is still readable and clearly structured.
PDF Document Format
Some of the information on this website is available in PDF format. PDF documents open in separate software such as the free to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Our aim is that all new PDF documents created for this website will be in accessible PDF format, although many of the older documents on this website pre-date this particular format and may not always be accessible.
If you are using a screen reader you will find information on the Adobe website which provides useful tools and resources including a screen readers user guide for PDF documents.
Access Keys
Access keys are not in use on this website.
Forms
All forms follow a logical Tab order.
Labels are associated with fields using HTML label tags. Furthermore, fieldsets and legend tags have been used to mark up groups of fields that belong together.
Scripting
Certain applications within this site are dependent on JavaScript
Maintaining Accessibility
We will aim that all new content published on this website to be fully accessible.
We will aim to author more user-friendly, and customer-focused content.
We are committed to maintaining and monitoring the accessibility of this website. As part of this process we welcome any comment, suggestions or details of problems encountered from users. If you have any issues please contact us.
Large print, Braille and audio communications
All of our communications (statements, letters and brochures) can be requested in alternative formats to suit your needs. Please contact your local branch or our call centre on 0346 6016 157 to arrange.