Accessible Web Site
This site has been designed using the latest in web-standards and a series of high-quality design methodologies to ensure that the site and it's contents remains open to all users - regardless of technology, ability or connection.
The site has been validated and verified against the following industry standards:
- W3C Consortium - Web Accessibility Initiative
- W3C Consortium - XHTML Coding Standards
- W3C Consortium - Cascading Stylesheet Standards
- Watchfire Bobby Accessibility
What the badges mean
Looking towards the bottom of the site, you will see a series of badges that claim adoption and validation against a series of guidelines and standards.
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - Web Accessibility Initiative - AAA Priority
The ultimate in web accessibility standards, this status indicates that the site has been
checked against the highest in web accessibility standards. Users are able to use this
site regardless of browser, footprint of platform, ability of the user or the constraint
of the connection.
For information on the W3C Accessibility Standards v1.0, visit the WAI Homepage at W3C.
W3C XHTML 1.0 Markup Standard
As technology drives web access forward, so the standards must follow. XHTML represents a
high-standard of web page markup, bring the benefits of HTML and combining those with the
strenth of XML. All pages on this site have been validated against the XHTML 1.0 validator
available at W3C.
For information on the W3C XHTML mark-up standard, visit the XHTML 1.0 Specification at W3C.
W3C Cascading Stylesheets v2.0 Standard
Cascading Stylesheets provide the ability to add style and effects to web-page to liven
it up and to make it a lot more pleasing to the eye. Effective use of CSS can allow a web site
to separate its content from its formatting, providing the raw content to accessible
and low-bandwidth browsers, without adding the overhead of graphics and formatting that
are often unsuitable for certain browsers. This site uses a variety of stylesheets to
effectively transform content for down-level browsers.
For information on the W3C CSS 2.0 standard, visit the CSS Homepage at W3C.
Watchfire - Bobby Approved - AAA Priority
The Watchfire Bobby programme provides a high-level validation service to identify
issues in web accessibility. This site has been run through this test and has passed for
all automatic web accessibility issues. It is impossible for any current validator to
truly verify against the subjective user experience, therefore this site has been designed
and tested against established design and usability standards
For information on the Watchfire Bobby Validator, visit the WAI Homepage at W3C.
Helen Bowman is not responsible for the quality or suitability of external sites and inclusion on this site does not constitute recommendation.