We recognise the importance of ensuring that our website is accessible by all users, including those who are blind or visually impaired. We have made every effort to ensure that this is the case. We have introduced the following features to ensure that visitors with low vision or those who are using screen reader software or hardware can navigate and understand the site. The website has been tested by a blind person using the JAWS screen reader.

All images used in this site include alt tag attributes which aim to give an adequate description of the image. We have been careful to avoid the use of clip art and other images which are purely for visual impact (so-called ‘eye candy’).

We have taken care to make adequate use of white space and deliberately used a white background for contrast with the dark blue text. We also selected Verdana as the predominant font because of its good legibility. If you prefer, you may override these colours by making changes in your browser settings. Also, most of the fonts we use are resizeable, if required.

Tables used purely for layout purposes do not have header cells which could cause confusion to any screen reader software or hardware. All forms attributes have been designed for maximum legibility, and with a simple layout.

The use of Javascript has been kept to a minimum – it has only been used in the main navigation bar at the head of each page. The pages would be still navigable if Javascript were to be turned off in the browser.

Although extensive use has been made of links, we have added link titles where appropriate.