Shropshire Routes to Roots

Accessibility information

Introduction

The Shropshire Routes to Roots website aims to be as accessible as possible, within the constraints of web page design. Its supports the Guidelines for UK Government websites, published in May 2002, and shares the same vision of serving "the largest possible audience using the broadest range of systems (hardware and software platforms) and that the needs of users with disabilities are considered".

The pages are kept as simple as possible, without using frames. Stylesheets are used throughout (CSS2) and most pages, and all new pages, are written in XHTML 1.0 Transitional. To make maximum use of features it is recommended that you use a modern browser. The site is generally backward compatible, but with reduced functionality and more basic appearance. Use of proprietary scripts and files is kept to a minimum, with alternative methods of access that do not need special plugins. Abbreviations and acronyms are expanded to assist with speech synthesis.

Basic standards

The Routes to Roots website aims to conform to all the W3C accessibility guidelines (opens in a new window) up to Priority Level 2. It meets many of the checkpoints at Priority Level 3.

The W3C guidelines give a detailed breakdown of the requirements for accessibility. In more general terms, the list below gives the principal standards applied to Routes to Roots:

• Pages are designed to allow users to scale fonts and adjust screen resolutions to suit their preferences.
• CSS2 stylesheets have been used to ensure users can apply their own visual settings if they want.
• XHTML 1.0 Transitional has been used to ensure compatibility across most browsers, past, current and future.
• No additional software or plug-ins are required to access the site. Where Javascript has been used, alternative HTML-only versions of pages have been provided.
• Access keys are provided to allow users to navigate the site via the keyboard.
• All pages are 'printer-friendly'. This means they will print out without coloured backgrounds, and without unnecessary links or logos.

Access keys

Access keys enable those who rely on a keyboard or voice input to navigate more easily. The assigned keys follow the recommendations contained within the Guidelines for UK government websites, published in June 2003, and the following are in use within this website:-

Alt+S Skip navigation
Alt+1 Home page
Alt+3 Site map
Alt+4 Search this site
Alt+8 Copyright information
Alt+0 Accessibility and list of accesskeys [ this page ]

These work in Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.5 and above. As an example, to go to the Home page the keystrokes are "Alt" (keeping it pressed) and then "1". Release the keys then press "Enter" to activate the link.

Other browsers, or versions of browsers, may work in different ways. For example, in Firefox (versions 2 and 3) you need to press the shift key in addition, but do not press "Enter". Google ® Chrome 1 supported accesskeys, but version 2 did not.

Verification

A range of software was used to ensure that the above standards were met. In particular, the following checks were carried out on the original website:

• Stylesheets were checked using the W3C CSS validator.
• HTML was checked for accuracy using HTML Tidy on Chami's XHTML Kit, and against the W3C validator.
• Pages were originally checked for accessibility using A-Prompt, the W3C checkpoints for accessibility and an online version of Watchfire's Bobby.
• All links continue to be checked using Xenu's Link Sleuth.

If you experience any issues or difficulties in using this site, please go to the Who to contact page.

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