Clarity through design
We hope you like our website. We have taken great care to make sure that it complies to the latest Web Standards and guidelines in order to be clear, easy to use and accessible to as many people as possible.
Accessibility designed in
As well as following the accessibility guidelines provided by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), the issue of website accessibility has been key to every stage of the design process. Many of the techniques are 'behind the scenes' but some of the more obvious highlights are:
- Navigation links implemented in text instead of graphics. (Benefits: Scalable; efficient; can be interpretted by screen readers)
- Adjustable text size. (Try it: Use the Text Size option in your broswer's menu)
- 'Fluid' page layout - page content flows to fill the space available. No more 'best viewed at 1024x768' slogans!
- High contrast colours
- Consistent navigation tools
- Thoughtful use of text and layout for visual impact, instead of relying on cumbersome graphics which slow down the website and cause problems for people with specific accessibility requirements.
Standards Compliance
This site has been developed according to W3C Web Standards. This is a Good Thing. Specifically it has been successfully validated against the following specifications:
- XHTML 1.1
- CSS Level 2
Browser Compatibility
By following W3C web standards this site renders cleanly on most modern browsers, and most platforms.