Accessibility Statement

Our website is for everyone and we strive to make it easy to:

• Find with a search engine

• Find your way around

• Read and understand (see text accessibility for further information)

We try to:

• Use friendly language

• Make it easy to contact the correct person directly if you need to

• Use links with meaning i.e. 'transport pages' rather than 'click here'

• Tell you when we are going to make a link open a new browser window

• Let you know when we are linking to a PDF (see PDF accessibility for further information)

We try to avoid using:

• Jargon

• Complicated wordy sentences and paragraphs

• Images that make pages load slowly

Web standards

Our website is developed using valid HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to the standards laid out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) - Level AA. 

The website content works with assistive technologies, such as screen readers or text only

browsers.

Using different devices

You can find out more about using websites with a range of devices, in the My Computer My Way's guide to using assistive technologies .

PDF accessibility

We prefer not to use PDF files on our website, our preferred method of publishing information is in html (webpage) format.

The accessibility of PDF files has improved in recent years. However, they can still be difficult to access if they are not structured correctly. We have started to structure all new PDF files on our site so they can be read by assistive technologies such as screen readers. Next to each link we also provide file size information (which will indicate how long the file will take to open). Due to legal reasons we are required to keep certain PDF files on our website for several years. These archive files may not meet accessibility guidelines. If you do come across a document on the website that you are unable to view please Contact us and where at all possible we will supply the file in an accessible format.

To read PDF files you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Acrobat Reader software is available for downloading free of charge. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader

Text accessibility

We make sure all the contributors to our site are trained in writing for the web and follow Plain English guidelines .

The size of the text on our site can be resized using your browser controls, see the W3C text resizing instructions . You can also find out how to change text and background colour from the W3C instructions.

Non compliance

Due to the software used in designing this site, there is no visual indicator to show individual items on a website when using the tab functionality. All other accessibility elements are complied with.

What we do about known issues

As stated, we work to achieve and maintain WCAG 2.1 AA standards, but sometimes we are not able to. Where content is likely to create a barrier, we'll tell you and offer an alternative. If you find somewhere on the site where we've failed to do this, please Contact us .

Other people's content

Our site includes 3rd party content and functionality. We can't always guarantee that this content is accessible, but will always choose a source that we know to be accessible if possible.

Links to other websites

For the benefit of our users we link to other websites, including social media platforms and official information sources. We can't guarantee that other organisation's websites are accessible, they remain the responsibility of the owner.

Video

We use YouTube to stream videos on our website. YouTube has good guidance on accessibility, you can find out more about this in YouTube help .

In addition we enable subtitles on our videos, and add a description and key words.

Contacting us and what happens next

Please Contact us if you have any issues and we will do our best to fix them. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has useful tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites .