Site help and accessibility provisions

Accessibility statement

It is my intention that this site should be easy to use and accessible to all visitors. I have followed current best practice accessibility guidelines in building the site, so I hope I have avoided any serious pitfalls. If you find a specific problem viewing or reading my site, please email me at web[at]kwbell[dot]biz (replace [at] with @ and [dot] with .) and I will see what I can do about it.

I have set out below some specific information that you might find helpful when using my web site. For a wider explanation of the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible for you, I highly recommend the BBC My Web My Way site.

Text size adjustment

If you are using a visual browser, you can change the size of the text for more comfortable viewing.

  1. Most browsers have text size adjustment options under their View menus. In Internet Explorer, for example, you can make your default text size larger under the View menu (located on the toolbar) by selecting Text Size, Larger (or Largest).
  2. If you have a wheel mouse, many browsers allow you to increase or decrease the text size by holding down the Ctrl key (Command key on Mac) while you move the scroll wheel up or down.
  3. Most browsers let you increase or decrease the text size by holding down the Ctrl key (Command key on Mac) while pressing the + or − keys respectively.

Internet Explorer version 7+, Firefox version 3+ and Opera all have a “zoom” feature, which changes the magnification of the page view including the images on the page: methods 2 or 3 above operate the zoom effect on those browsers. In Firefox, if you want to zoom the text but not the images, go to the View menu, then select Zoom, Zoom Text Only.

Navigation with the tab key

If you navigate using the keyboard rather than a mouse, you will find two discreetly concealed links at the top of the page. The first of these lets you skip past the main content to the navigation menu; the second is a link to this page. These links are spoken by screen reading software, and become visible when you tab to them.

Tabbing thereafter follows a logical order through any links and form fields in the page content, then the links in the navigation menu. In modern graphical browsers, when you tab to a link or form field, its appearance changes to indicate that you are “focused” on it.

Additional navigation aids

Each page has “relational” previous, next, home or other appropriate links to aid navigation in text-only browsers. If you use SeaMonkey (formerly Mozilla) or Opera, you can take advantage of this feature too:

  • in SeaMonkey, select the View menu, Show/Hide, Site Navigation Bar, Show Only As Needed (or Show Always);
  • In Opera, select the View menu, Toolbars, Navigation bar.

Mobile display option

If you are browsing with a small screen device such as a mobile telephone or PDA, you might prefer the Mobile display version of this site, which is optimised for viewing on small screens. You may switch between the mobile or standard display styles by selecting the Display: mobile or Display: standard link near the foot of each page. Note that cookies must be enabled in your browser to take advantage of this feature.

(If your mobile device understands and implements web standards properly, it will automatically display the mobile style, and the links mentioned above will not be shown.)

Design standards and compliance

Every page on this site meets Conformance Level Double-A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

The code for all pages complies with the HTML 4.01 (Strict) and CSS 2.1 specifications, with the rider that Media Queries help to channel the appropriate style sheets to browsers depending on their screen size. Although this specification has not yet attained W3C Recommendation status, it is already supported by major browsers.

This site uses JavaScript to provide small enhancements for those visitors whose browsers understand it. However, the site does not rely on JavaScript (or on any plugin) to deliver its core content or services.

By complying with these standards and practices, I aim to assure maximum compatibility between the pages on my web site and current and future web browsers and assistive technologies employed by disabled internet users.

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