Accessibility Statement
Introduction
A number of accessibility features have been included on this website:
- access keys
- advice on browser accessibility options
- allowing text sizes and colours to be changed to suit users' needs
- all images have alternative text descriptions
- frames are avoided on the website.
See below for detailed information on how to use this site.
Access keys
Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. To use the access keys with Internet Explorer and navigate using only the keyboard, press the 'Alt' ('Ctrl' on Apple Macintosh) key and any of the keys listed simultaneously, then press 'Enter' (on a Apple Macintosh, you will be directed automatically without having to press 'Enter').
All pages on this site define the following access keys:
1 - Home page
2 - Skip to main content
9 - Feedback
i - Introduction
a - Aims and Values
w - Where to find us
h - How we can help
f - Funding
v - Volunteers
t - Training
r - Resources
n - Newsletter (Voluntary Vine)
l - Latest news
m - Membership
f - Voluntary Sector Forum
d - Dates of Forum meetings
s - Strategic & Partnership
p - Projects
c - Contact us
u - Useful website links
a - Accessibility statement
Navigation aids
All pages have rel=previous, next, and home links to aid navigation in text-only browsers. Netscape 6 and Mozilla users can also take advantage of this feature by selecting the View menu, Show/Hide, Site Navigation Bar, Show Only As Needed (or Show Always).
Links
Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the headline of an article). Links are written to make sense out of context.
Images
All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.
Complex images include LONGDESC
attributes or inline descriptions to explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers.
Visual design
This site uses cascading style sheets for visual layout.
This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified text size option in visual browsers.
If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.
Browser Accessibility Options
Controlling text and colours in your web browser
You can specify the font sizes, styles and colours and foreground and background colours of Web pages displayed on your computer screen, even if the author of the Wed page has already specified these. You can also specify the colour used to indicate links in Web pages, or a special colour for links that are used only when the mouse passes over the link.
This is useful if you have low vision, need larger fonts, or need high-contrast colours. You can set Internet Explorer to use the colours and fonts you specify, your default Windows colours and fonts, or the settings you specify in your own style sheet.
If you use the Internet Explorer or Netscape broswers to view the Internet, the following guidelines will enable you to enlarge the size of the text and control the colours on your screen.
Microsoft Internet Explorer for PC
Open your Internet Explorer Web Browser.
Select 'Tools' from the menu at the top of your window.
From the options which appear, select 'Internet options....'
Click on the 'General' tab.
Click on the button marked 'Accessibility'.
To change your font size, select the checkbox marked 'Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages'.
To remove background and font colours, select the checkbox marked 'Ignore colours specified on web pages'.
Click OK (and again if necessary).
Select 'View' from the menu at the top of your window.
From the options which appear, select 'Text size'.
Select your desired text size.
Microsoft Internet Explorer for Apple Mac
Open your Internet Explorer Web Browser.
Select the 'edit' menu at the top of your window.
From the options menu which appear, select 'preferences'.
Click on 'web content'.
Deselect the button marked 'show tyle sheets'.
Return to the list of preferences.
Click on 'web browser'.
Select 'language/fonts.'
Select the font size you require.
Instructions for users of Netscape Navigator
Text
Select 'Edit' from the menu at the top of the window and choose 'Preferences'.
Open the Appearance group and click the 'Fonts' category.
Next to 'For the encoding' should read Western to tell the computer which types of letters and symbols to use. From 'Size' select 18.
Next to the Variable Width Font field is a drop down box: select 'Arial'. The fixed Width Font box should already read 'Courier New'. From 'Size' select 18.
To override the fonts used by the designer of the web page, select 'Use my default fonts overriding document specified fonts'.
Click 'OK'.
Colours
Select 'Edit' from the menu at the top of the window and choose 'preferences'.
Open the Appearance group and click the 'Colours' category.
Select a colour button to change colours of text, background, unvisited links, or visited links.
To override the colours used by the designer of the web page, select 'Always use my colours, overriding document'.
Click 'OK'.
Standards compliance
All pages on this website are aiming to be compliant for accessibility. Pages on this site are Bobby approved, complying with the Bobby guidelines.
All pages on this site comply with the guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
All pages on this site are Section 508 approved, complying with all of the U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines.
The xhtml and css used on this site validate.
We will keep striving to make this site as accessible and operable to all users.
Accessibility references
W3 accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.
W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline.
W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility.
U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.
Accessibility software
JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
Links, a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.
Opera, a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.
Accessibility services
Bobby, a free service to analyze web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.
HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer, a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
Lynx Viewer, a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.
National Library for the Blind's A-sites gateway.
The A-sites website provides an online library portal of accessible websites.
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