Accessibility
Our main purpose in producing this website is to communicate, so accessibility has been a priority. We have built this site to comply with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model and has followed W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines.
We have implemented the following accessibility features on this website to make it easier to use for disabled visitors.
Structured, semantic XHTML markup and CSS
This website is programmed using structured semantic XHTML markup with XHTML heading tags used to convey document structure. Navigation menus have been marked up as XHTML lists, this means that visitors using screenreaders will have the links in the list read out when the page opens. Cascading Style Sheets have been used throughout this website for defining styles and presentation (layout, fonts, colours, margins and borders). CSS benefits accessibility by separating document structure from presentation.
Accessibility Guidelines Level A
As part of the design process, the code was validated against the W3C recommendations for XHTML and CSS and we have endeavoured to make this website comply with all of the W3C Level A accessibility guidelines. To the best of our knowledge this has been achieved throughout the site ensuring that, wherever possible, the content is accessible to people with disabilities.
If you experience any problems accessing the information on this website, please get in touch with us so that we can resolve any bugs/issues as soon as possible.
Navigation Shortcuts
There is a short menu at the start of every page that allows you to jump directly to the most important parts of the page, including navigation and main content.
Site Map
The site map can be accessed directly from the footer links panel at the bottom of each page on the site. The site map lists all relevant navigation for the whole site. Use the site map if you would like to find out more about how the website is structured.
Font sizing
This website has been designed and programmed in a way which allows visitors to change the font size of each page to their preferred setting. This can be adjusted through the browser preferences (usually found in the View menu).
Images and Links
Many of the images used in this site include a descriptive alt attribute. There is a link from the About Us page which acknowledges the artists who have given permission for use of their images, and also the photographers. All links provided in this site include a descriptive title attribute so that when read out of context, they still make sense.
Javascript
The programme search facility requires Javascript to be enabled to function the way we intend it to function. However if Javascript is disabled or not installed, we have provided an HTML alternative in these circumstances.
