Accessibility statement

 

As Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web said, "The power of the Web is in its universality". We recognise the importance of providing a website that is accessible to everyone, regardless of disability.

 

Accessibility features on this website

Navigation shortcuts

There is a short menu at the start of every page that allows you to jump directly to the most important parts of the page, including main content and navigation. Sighted people who use the keyboard to navigate will see these links appear on screen when using the Tab key to navigate through the page. When navigating using the keyboard, the element currently in focus is highlighted.

Access keys have not been used to avoid conflicting with other keyboard shortcuts.

Semantic markup

All pages follow a logical document structure. Users of screen readers can get around pages quickly by moving between headings. Navigation menus are marked up as lists. Cascading Sstyle Ssheets (CSS) is used to control layout and presentation.

Text size

All pages have a tool enabling you to change the text size. You can also change the text size of the website through your browser:

  • In Internet Explorer, select View, then Text Size, and then your preferred size
  • In Firefox select View, then Text Size, and then Increase or Decrease, or Ctrl/Cmd + Plus or Minus
  • In Netscape select View, then Text Zoom, and then your preferred percentage size
  • In Safari select View, then Make Text Bigger or Make Text Smaller, or Ctrl/Cmd + Plus or Minus

The page layout adapts to the browser width, accommodating large text sizes more effectively.

Images

All content images used in this site include descriptive alt text. Purely decorative images have empty alt text.

Forms

Forms have their labels explicitly associated with their controls.

Links

All link text has been written to make sense out of context, or else has explanatory title attributes.

JavaScript

Dynamic HTML has been used sparingly, and designed according to the principle of graceful degradation. If JavaScript is unavailable, all website content will remain accessible.

As some screen readers execute JavaScript but cannot effectively describe dynamic page changes, we recommend that users of screen readers disable JavaScript in order to avoid confusion. Here are instructions for the most commonly used browsers:

Internet Explorer 5 and later

1.    On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

2.    On the Security tab, click Internet.

3.    Click Custom Level.

4.    Scroll down to Active scripting (under the Scripting menu).

5.    Click Disable.

6.    Click OK.

7.    Click Yes.

8.    Click OK.

Firefox 2 and later

1.    On the Tools menu, click Options.

2.    Click on the Content icon.

3.    Uncheck the box next to Enable JavaScript.

4.    Click OK.

Opera 9 and later

1.    On the Tools menu, click Preferences.

2.    Click Content in the Preferences list.

3.    Uncheck the box next to Enable JavaScript.

4.    Click OK.

5.    Click OK.

Safari 2 and later

1.    On the Safari menu, click Preferences.

2.    Click the Security tab.

3.    Uncheck the box next to Enable JavaScript.

4.    Close the window.

Standards compliance

We strive to comply with the W3C WAI's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The Key has been independently reviewed and we are proud to have attained WAI-AA conformance. The independent accessibility review comprised automated tests, expert evaluation and testing by users with disabilities. See Caveats below.

At the time of launch, all pages validated to XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

Caveats

  • We cannot guarantee the accessibility of external information linked to from this website
  • When we link to content in formats with reduced accessibility, for example Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint documents, we indicate it up-front. At the time of writing, we do not always meet this requirement when we link to external sites, but we are in the process of updating all articles to correct this. Please contact us if you have difficulty accessing any information we link to, and we'll do our best to help
  • As we are continuously updating our website, exceptions to the above accessibility standards may sometimes inadvertently be introduced. Please let us know if you have difficulty accessing any of our content

Contact us

If you experience any difficulty accessing this website, please do not hesitate to contact us.