Site help
Accessibility
Level Triple-A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 This site has been designed to be as accessible as possible whilst maintaining it–s visual interest. To achieve this a variety of features have been included. These are summarised below.
Access Keys
The ability to navigate the site using other means than a mouse can be important for those who have difficulties using a mouse or other pointing devices. To help with this we have set up 'Access Keys' (see below) on the site which allow easy navigation to the main pages on the web site.
As well as helping those who have difficulty using a mouse it also allows quick access to the main pages for anyone who prefers to use the keyboard.
To use the access keys on the site follow these steps
- 1. Press and hold the "Alt" key (for windows users) or the "ctrl" key (for Apple Mac users).
- 2. Press the required letter.
- 3. If necessary, release all keys and press the return key. The browser will then load the relevant page.
Standard Access Keys
- S - Skip navigation
- 1 - Homepage
- 3 - Site map
- 8 - Privacy
- 9 - Contact Us
- 0 - The menu page of access keys used (this page)
Access keys specific to this site
- W - Who we are
- D - What we do
- P - Reports and publications
- V - Visit RDA’
- R - About the regions
- C - Case studies
Resizable Text
We have not fixed the size of the textual information on the site. This allows visitors to alter the font size on the screen making the site easier to read. To change the text size in your browser follow these steps: (In Internet Explorer)
- 1. Select the "View" menu.
- 2. Select the "Text Size" option from the menu.
- 3. Select the text size you want to view.
It is also possible to increase the size of the text by holding down the "Ctrl" key on the bottom left hand row of the key board whilst using the scroll wheel on the mouse to increase (or decrease) the size of the text. Please refer to browser or operating system help files for otehr methods of zooming text.
Coding Standards
Although there are not definitive standards to use when coding we have tried to make sure our site conforms to W3C standards for HTML and CSS. Adhering to these standards makes our site accessible to those browsers that also adhere to these standards, and makes our web pages more accessible to those using screen readers and similar devices.
The site also passes the Cynthia and WAVE (WebAIM) AAA Accessibility. These tests ensure that:
All Images have associated 'alt' tags (i.e. text alternatives) so that visitors know what the image is meant to convey should it not load, or if the visitor has chosen to browse with images switched off (or browsing with a screen reader or similar browser that does not display images)
Text size can be altered by the visitor if required (see Resizable Text, above)
Text color has been carefully to contrast sufficiently with the background and is easily distinguishable for colour-blind visitors
Printing
This site utilises a CSS file especially designed for printing purposes. This means that when users click on 'Print' in the toolbar the page requested will only print the relevant information (text and images) to that page. It will not print extraneous or unnecessary information to the printed page such as web site navigation or background graphics.