Accessibility

All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H3 tags are used for main titles. To use this to your advantage, users of the JAWS screenreader can jump between third level headings by using the command ALT+INSERT+3. More pages are being recoded using structured semantic markup. Most of the content conforms to Bobby A and Department of Defence Section 508 standards. Any pages that do not conform are currently being recoded to conform to these standards.

Access Keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key.

All pages on this site define the following access keys:

  • Access key S - Skip to content

The use of access keys does not presume to give enhanced accessibility benefits, but instead provides additional usability benefits for most users.

Text

  • Body text and most other text on this website is set in relative sizes, which means the user can increase and decrease text size as required.
  • Body text is set using fluid font calculations enhancing readability and cogntive awareness regardless of viewport size
  • To do this, try the keyboard combinations "CTRL +" and "CTRL -".
  • As an alternative to keyboard shortcuts, the same effect can be achieved through a web browser's pulldown menus: "View > Text Size > Large" or similar.
  • This text resizing can be done whenever Javascript is disabled, as we deploy a Javascript text resizing tool as well.

Links

  • Links are self-describing for intuitive understanding when encountered out of context.
  • Many links have a title attribute which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
  • Links leading to files that are not HTML documents such as PDF's Word files etc, are noted via the link text and/or title attributes.

Visual Layout

This site uses CSS (cascading style sheets) for visual layout. If your browser does not support CSS, the content of each page is still highly legible through being structured in a linear and hierarchical fashion.

Images

  • All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes.
  • VSG based icons are included in links that describe them. SVG presentational aspects such as being placed in the background are not.
  • Purely decorative graphics include ALT attributes or are handled purely by CSS, thus not requiring descriptive ALT attributes at all.

Browsers

This website is designed for effective use by all web browsers and devices. Enhancements have been made to this site that may provide additional functionality and refinement in newer browsers. If you would like to take advantage of this, please ensure you are using a modern browser, such as Firefox, Vivaldi or Safari. Newer browsers are free and straightforward to install, and are typically 5 to 10 MB in size.

Of particular interest to people with disabilities, newer browsers include more accessibility and usability features. For example, a user-specified stylesheet can aid users with some types of visual impairment by increasing text size and replacing coloured backgrounds and text with high-contrast alternatives. High contrast stylesheets have been deployed as part of the design phase for Absalom Media.

To help maintain a high quality experience, this site has also been extensively tested using screen reader software such as JAWS and WindowEyes.

For more information on how to customise Internet Explorer browser, go to "Help > Internet options" in the pulldown menu. Similarly, for Firefox go to "Tools > Options".

Languages

This site's language is defined as "en" to tell screen readers what language - English - this site is written in, so it can pronounce words properly when it reads them aloud.