1. INTRODUCTION
2. POLICY STATEMENT
3. GUIDELINES
4. IMPLEMENTATION
5. REVIEW
6. APPENDICES

1. INTRODUCTION

We have tried to produce a website that is accessible to both web browsers and assistive technologies (such as screen readers, voice browsers, touch screens, head pointers and so on).

The site can be navigated by various routes and does not rely upon images or sound for essential content.

2. POLICY STATEMENT

To strive to comply with a high level of accessibility as specified by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) [Appendix 1]

3. GUIDELINES

The Accessibility Policy for this web site has been developed based on World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Following these guidelines should ensure the mark-up of a documents content is written in such a way as to be accessible to:

• The inexperienced or technophobic
• The socially excluded
• Older users
• Disabled users

The W3C WAI recommend 10 quick tips that should be used to produce accessible web pages.
They are listed as:

1. Images and animations
   Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
2. Image maps
   Use client-side image maps and text for hotspots.
3. Multimedia
   Provide captioning and transcripts of audio and descriptions of video.
4. Hypertext links
   Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid 'click here'.
5. Page organisation
   Use headings, lists and consistent structure. Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout and style where possible.
6. Graphs and charts
   Summarise or use the longdesc attribute.
7. Scripts, applets and plug-ins
   Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
8. Frames
   Use <noframes> and meaningful titles.
9. Tables
   Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarise.
10. Check your work, validate
    Use tools, checklist and guidelines at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/Res

4. IMPLEMENTATION

New pages should be produced in line with the guidelines of section 3.

Old pages should be updated to incorporate the guidelines where possible.

5. REVIEW

This policy will be reviewed regularly to take into account continually evolving technologies.

6. APPENDIX

APPENDIX 1: Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

The WAI works with organizations around the world to encourage content providers to consider the accessibility of their products.
For more information visit http://www.w3.org/WAI

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