Websites - accessibility

     

Browser compatibility

This web site has been developed to work with all browsers on all platforms and be accessible to and usable to all visitors.

Access keys

Shepway District Council are striving to ensure that the web site is accessible by everyone. To this end a number of accessibility features have been built in.

Access keys are keyboard shortcuts that replace the need to use the mouse for navigation, in browsers that support them. For example: using FireFox, you can press the Alt key and one of the access keys (below)at the same time; using Internet Explorer, you can press the Alt key and one of the access keys, then press Enter.

The following access keys are available throughout the web site:

• h - Jump to Home page
• s - (Skip navigation) Jump to main content
• n - Jump to Navigation menu
• q - Jump to Shortcuts menu
• 9 - Jump to Contact Us
• 0 - Jump to Accessibility statement
• t - Jump to Top of the page

These access keys have been chosen to follow the national guidelines where applicable, in order to support the adoption of a useful standard.

Images

All content images used in the web site include "alt" attributes, possibly empty when the image is used purely as a visual artefact.

Visual Styling

The web site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for visual layout and uses only relative font sizes. If your browser or browsing device does not support CSS at all, the content of each page is still readable.

Forms

All forms follow a logical Tab sequence. Labels are associated with fields using HTML label tags.

Scripting

The web site uses scripting (JavaScript). However, all content remains fully accessible if scripting is unavailable.

The only exceptions are the online payments portal and some online forms, which require JavaScript turned on. We are working on removing this dependancy in the near future.

Links

There are no links that open new windows.

Whever possible, links are written to make sense out of context.

Standards compliance

Where possible all pages are intended to comply with all priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines of the W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/

All pages validate as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), version HTML 4.01, www.w3.org/TR/html4/

If you come across any access barriers with the web site, please let us know and we will do our best to fix them.

Icons

To help you whilst you use the web site we have used a small selection of features that easily identify certain types of links:

External Link

PDF Document (123kB)

Video Document (123kB)

Downloadable File (123kb)

 Online form

Similarily, the following features are used across the web site to easily identify contact details:

Telephone Number

Fax Number

E-mail Address

Screen Resolution

The web site has been designed for accurate viewing at all screen resolutions, however screens using less than a 800 x 600 resolution may not be as visually-effective.

PDF Documents

PDF documents have been used throughout the web site. To enable the viewing and downloading (saving) of these documents you will require Adobe Reader. You can download Adobe Reader free of charge at www.adobe.com.

Legal Information

For information about the legal aspects of the web site, hyperlinks, privacy statement and the use of cookies please see the web site disclaimer.

Additional Help and Training

You may find the following pages useful if you wish to learn more about using the internet more effectively.

One of the best ways to learn about using the internet and computers is to attend a course such as those provided by UKOnline and Learndirect centres such as the Romney Resource Centre.

Find out more about using the internet and the training courses available at the Romney Resource centre.

The BBC's guide to using the internet, "Webwise", www.bbc.co.uk/webwise may also be a useful resource.

This web site has been validated at www.w3.org