Accessibility Policy
We at Ryan Hallett Website Design and Consultancy believe in the fair trading of information for all people. That is why we have dedicated ourselves to bring to you compliance guided by the WCAG 2.0 Level AA conformance (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). These are guidelines compiled by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). As of the 30 December 2012, the guidelines of this policy will be met in full.
This means that our site, including all advanced multimedia (though javascript must be enabled to view flash content) will be able to be viewed and consumed by people with a wide range of disabilities or circumstances including partial or full blindness, hearing difficulties, and also those using older browsers.
To give you scope on the importance of this implementation, it is not currently required for the creator of a website to adhere to this compliance; although without at least priority 1 and 2 sufficiently covered, one or more groups will find it very difficult to access information on any given page.
Following is a detailed list of the accessibility features employed in this site:
The website validates to W3C strict XHTML and CSS standards and headings are structured according to strict hierarchy.
This site functions on all major browsers on both Windows and MAC operating systems. Tested in Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer v 7 and 8, 9, Safari and also compatible with older browsers such as Netscape 4.7.
The natural language of the document is English.
Style sheets control layout and presentation; all pages break down in a linear manner and function correctly when styles are disabled.
Layout tables are not used; layout is achieved through CSS coding. Forms are marked up correctly using the label element and linked to their fields using id’s.
Flash content has been created in a way that allows dynamic text to be shown, so screen readers can access the information. Any movie clips within flash content are also made accessibly with descriptions and labels for each element.
Javascript use is not required, we have taken steps to ensure that all content (with the exception of flash animation) can be viewed with or without javascript.
In the case of images not being displayed or a screen reader is in operation, meaningful text equivalents have been used to describe any non-text element on the page. Some of the more complex images have a link to which the user can click and view a long description of the content.
No content is solely conveyed through the use of colour alone, all information is available to be understood with or without the use of colour.
A tab order is specified for important links and other significant areas within the site, eg. the contact form input area and submit button.
Users can skip the navigation of each page (see accesskeys below).
Shortcut keys are enabled through use of the accesskey element. These are detailed below.
The access keys are:
- 1 – Home / Services page
- 2 – Portfolio page
- 3 – About Me page
- 4 – Contact page
- s - skip navigation links
- t – Terms & Privacy Policy page
- a - Accessibility Policy page
The different key combinations required for accesskeys depending on the browser and platforms are as follows:
- Internet Explorer 4 (PC) - Alt + Access Key
- Internet Explorer 5+ (PC) - Alt + Access Key then press Enter
- Internet Explorer 4.5 (Mac) - Access keys not supported
- Internet Explorer 5+ (Mac) - Ctrl + Access Key
- Konqueror (Linux) - Alt + Ctrl + Access Key
- Netscape 6 and earlier (PC and Mac) - Access keys not supported
- Netscape 7 (PC) - Alt + Access Key
- Firefox, Mozilla Pre v14 (Linux & Mac) - Ctrl + Access Key
- Firefox, Mozilla Pre v14 (PC) - Alt + Access Key
- Firefox, Mozilla Post v14 (Linux & Mac) - Ctrl + Alt + Access Key
- Firefox, Mozilla Post v14 (PC) - Alt + Shift + Access Key
- Safari and Omniweb (Mac) - Ctrl + Access Key
- Safari 3+ (PC) - Alt + Access Key
- Safari 4+ (Mac) - Ctrl + Opt + Access Key
- Opera - Shift + Escape (then release both keys), then press Access Key.
Only authorised people will be making changes to this site, and those people will have the proper training to modify the content in a way that will uphold this policy.
If you have any queries about this Policy, please contact the webmaster by email, or by using the contact form on the contact page of this website.