Web Accessibility

Assessors are committed to making the Portal website as accessible as possible to all visitors. The site is continually reviewed and pages modified to remove accessibility problems and to make information more accessible for all users. Content is checked for plain English, and we aim to use a written style which is straightforward and understandable.

Our target is to meet or exceed the provisions of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Conformance Level “AA” and to ensure our website is compliant with existing and future legislation.

 What does that mean in practice?

We follow a list of accessibility guidelines when designing our websites and its content. This includes:

• Maintaining a standard layout and navigation system throughout;
• Using headings, paragraphs, lists and similar approaches to create a logical document structure;
• Ensuring users change the size of the text using the resize option in their browser;
• Using plain backgrounds to improve the readability of text;
• Using foreground and background colour combinations which have sufficient contrast and are not known to cause problems for sufferers of colour-blindness;
• Designing layouts to work satisfactorily at a range of screen resolutions;
• Ensuring all hyperlinks use descriptive and meaningful text, avoiding short-hand language like ‘Click here’;
• Providing internal anchors for visitors using screen readers or similar technology;
• Providing access keys to allow keyboard navigation to the main areas of the site;

Assessors are always trying to improve the Portal website. If you have any comments on our accessibility policy suggestions for how to improve the site or are experiencing accessibility problems accessing any area of the site, please contact us using the feedback form available from this website.