Website Accessibility

The Ambassador’s Oxford website has been designed with accessibility issues in mind and has been tested in various ways to meet accessibility standards.

Access keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on a website. With Windows-based browsers, you should be able to press and hold ALT + the relevant access key, followed by the return key (as listed below). With Macintosh computers, press CONTROL + the access key required.

The following important pages on our site use access keys:

General

  • All pages on this site comply with all priority 1, 2, and in most cases, 3 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Please bear in mind that many of these guidelines are intentionally vague and can therefore not really be tested automatically.
  • All pages on this site aim to validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional, and use CSS 2.1 for visual presentation. Use of tables for non-tabular information is kept to a minimum.
  • All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles.
  • Pages can be navigated and its content read without requiring the use of a mouse.

Visual design

  • Cascading styles sheets are used for visual layout
  • If style sheets are unsupported by your browser, the content of the pages is still readable
  • Images used only as part of the overall site design have null alt attributes

Text size

  • For those who do use a mouse (with a wheel) text size can be adjusted by holding down the CONTROL key on the keyboard and moving the mouse wheel accordingly
  • Fonts sizes used are relative

Continued…

Images

  • Content images (i.e. those not used for overall site design) used on this site include descriptive alt attributes

Navigation

  • In order to make a clear distinction for those using screen readers, all adjacent navigation links are separated by non-links

Links

  • Where required, links employ title attributes to describe the destination in greater detail
  • Links are written to still make sense, even out of context
  • Where the destination of a given link will take the user to a new window, this is clearly indicated for the visually impaired
  • Adjacent links are always separated by non-link text

Forms

  • A tabindex has been employed on our enquiry form page, for those not using a mouse
  • All of the input elements in the forms on this site are marked up with label tags

Credits

For more details about accessibility, visit the excellent Dive into Accessibility website.