WEB SITE ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Scope of this Statement
- This statement refers to the VI-SA-GB.org.uk
website.
- This statement does not yet apply to secondary or third party sites.
- The next stage of our accessibility project is to ensure that all sites published in the last three years that the VISA-GB site links to, meet the requirements of this statement, and that all sites older than three years are brought as close as possible to being accessible.
Standards Compliance
- Our aim is to meet all priority 1 requirements of the W3C
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
(WCAG 1.0). Meeting this standard is commonly known as Level A compliance.
- We also aim to meet as many priority 2 requirements of the WCAG 1.0 as possible. Meeting this standard is commonly known as Level AA compliance.
- In commissioning new websites and maintaining the accessibility of existing sites, we aim to follow the best practice guidelines described in the British
Standards Institution's Publicly Available Specification BS8878.
Current State of Compliance
Level A Compliance
We currently meet all but two of the
Level A compliance checkpoints.
These are:
- Checkpoint 1.4 (synchronise captions with videos) - We are working to comply with this checkpoint. As of 8 October 2009 we have 1 video awaiting inclusion on the main site, unfortunately this video fails to meet this requirement. This video has neither transcripts nor synchronised captions.
We intend to create synchronised captions for all videos, and ensure that all new videos are published with synchronised captions.
- Checkpoint 4.1 (specify the language of all non-English words) - We do not intend to comply with this checkpoint at this stage. This is because in version 2.0 of the WCAG , this requirement has been reduced to priority 2. .
Level AA Compliance
We currently meet all but three of the Level AA compliance checkpoints.
These are:
- Checkpoint 2.2 (colour contrast) - We fail this checkpoint with some of our top navigation buttons, and are investigating what needs to be done to meet
this requirement.
- Checkpoint 3.2 (validate to W3C grammars) - Our search system does not validate to W3C standards (though the rest of the site should validate to HTML
1.0 Transitional). This is because we use Google search, and we do not have control over the format of the search results.
- Checkpoint 10.1 (don't open new browser windows) - We do not intend to comply with this checkpoint at this stage. In version 2.0 of the WCAG ,
this requirement has been split into three separate checkpoints: We currently meet the first
two checkpoints, both of which are priority 1, and while we fail to meet the last checkpoint, it has been relegated to priority 3 in the new guidelines.
Maintaining Accessibility Standards
Once a section of the website has been made to meet the above accessibility standards, we continually review the site and modify pages to ensure they continue
to be accessible. This review process includes, among others, the following processes:
- Some WCAG 1.0 checkpoints - such as making sure pages validate to W3C web grammars - can be checked automatically. We run automatic checks regularly
on the site to ensure compliance in these areas.
- Our content management process has been designed to ensure that accessibility information has to be entered before content can be published. Furthermore,
all pages have to be checked by members of the Web Team before they can be published, and part of this checking process is to ensure adherence to the WCAG
2.0 checkpoints.
- New sections of the site will only be added once they meet the above standards.
- We will continue to develop our in-house editorial guidelines to ensure we produce accessible content.
- Once we have finished making our links to secondary and third party sites accessible, we will work with our Disability and Access team to iron out any further issues.
Access Keys
UK Government access keys Standard
The access key attribute, introduced in HTML4.0, is intended to provide keyboard shortcuts in that they provide an alternative form of navigation. This addition allows disabled users to navigate the organisation's website more easily. There are however some drawbacks, for example:
- functionality depends on the type of operating system you are using
- the attribute is only supported by MS Internet Explorer 4 and above and by Netscape 6x versions
- with Windows-based systems the user has to press the 'Alt key' and the access key, and with the Macintosh system the user has to press the 'Ctrl key' and the access key
- design defined access keys may conflict with user defined access keys currently in use
Listed below for information only is the recommended UK Government access keys standard
- S - Skip navigation
- 1 - Home page
- 2 - What's new
- 3 - Site map
- 4 - Search
- 5 - Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ)
- 6 - Help
- 7 - Complaints procedure
- 8 - Terms and conditions
- 9 - Feedback form
- 0 - Access key details
Accessibility1.0 utilises the UK Government Access Keys Standard. After much consideration, and because we endeavour to meet Accessibility 2.0 we removed access keys from the site because of interactivity issues and possible conflicts with access and adaptive technologies.
We support Skip to main content because the navigation is placed before the page content.
Feedback
If you have any questions or feedback about the accessibility of the VI-SA-GB website, we would like to hear from you. You can contact the Web Team by completing the following ticket
Copyright Notice
All information provided and presented by the association is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not reproduce, copy or transmit, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the association.