Accessibility

At Gateway we are committed to website accessibility.

The Gateway website has been constructed to meet the level 2 recommendations made by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to achieve a combination of an "A" and "AA" rating.

Browsealoud

Our website offers a link to Browsealoud. This is a free tool that 'reads' the website aloud. It offers a practical website access service to people with reading difficulties and those who find it easier to listen to, rather than read the content of our website.

It assists in the navigation of our website for the following sections of the population:

• Those with low literacy and reading skills
• Those where English is not the first language
• Dyslexic people
• Those with mild visual impairment

Visit the Browsealoud site to download your free copy of the software to listen to our website.

Accessibility standards for Gateway website

This site adheres to W3C standards for XHTML 1.0 strict and is validated to CSS2.
The site has also been tested to W3C AA accessibility standard.

What else are we doing to be accessible?

• Meaningful links titles and page URLs are created throughout the site. These are used to aid readability, especially for visually impaired people using screen readers to access the site.

• Cascading Style Sheets or ‘CSS’ are used throughout the site to layout all content which aid accessibility by screenreaders. Tables are not used to position elements on the page, so screenreaders or other devices only encounter tables when they are related to tabulated data.

• The text on each page can be resized using four different text size options. Users with JavaScript enabled can access these buttons on the right of each page. The text resize buttons enlarge or reduce the text size according to the user preference, which is then remembered on subsequent visits to the site.

• All text resizing has been designed so the design remains consistent, even at the largest text size.

• Alternative stylesheets are provided for users without JavaScript enabled to allow them to move between text sizes using means provided by their browser.

• All images related to the content on the site are supported by alternative text or ‘alt text’ which can be accessed by screenreaders.

• The content element of each page has been prioritised over associated items such as menus, navigation and related links. This helps people using screen readers to access the most relevant sections of the page first, rather than scrolling through lines of code to find the text they are interested in.

• An internal link allowing users with screen readers to skip to the main navigation is featured on each page. This helps users scan page headlines using screen readers and move on to other more appropriate pages quickly.

Helping you make your computer easier to use

To find out more about making your computer more accessible and easy to use, have a look at AbilityNet's website. They have a range of tips and suggestions relating to accessibility issues.

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