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Accessibility Statement

The Railway Heritage Committee website has been built with the intention of making the content accessible to the widest range of visitors, regardless of disability or impairment. This has been achieved by adhering to best practices, such as compliance with the W3C Standards and WAI Guidelines.

Standards Compliance
The pages on this website have been built to comply with the standards of WCAG AAA, complying with all priority 1, 2 and 3 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The pages on this site have been tested using the W3C Markup Validation Service for both the XHTML and CSS involved in the client-side construction of the website. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict. The site also complies with Bobby and Cynthia for accessibility and usability.

Copy
We have tried to ensure that the copy on our website is well laid out and easy to understand.

Browser information
We have tested this website on a number of browsers and platforms. Wherever possible, we would recommend upgrading your browser to the latest version number. This site works with:
Microsoft IE 6: www.microsoft.com/windows/ie
Apple Safari: www.apple.com/safari
Mozilla Firefox: www.mozilla.org/products/firefox
Lynx: http://lynx.isc.org/release
Opera: www.opera.com/download

Page Formating Buttons
In the top right hand corner there are three buttons which enable the user to use cascading style sheets to change how the website content is formatted. A list of the different features are listed below. However, if users are using a version of a browser which is not able to view cascading style sheets, the website will be simply displayed in a text only form.

Regular Page StyleNormal: These settings are the standard default for the entire website and means you are able to revert back to the standard colours at any point just by clicking on the button. This will then change all colours back to their default.

Contrast Page Style: dark text on a light backgroundContrast: This setting is used to make text light on a dark background, making it easier for people with visual impairment to navigate and view content on the website.

High Visibility Page Style: light text on a dark backgroundHigh Visibility: This enables the visitor to change the colours and text used to extremes. This option is useful for those with severe visual impairment and allows them to view content more easily.

Access Keys
Access Keys work by pressing down the Ctrl on a standard keyboard when using Macintosh and pressing the corresponding letter for the various pages of the website. For Windows computers, simply hold down the Alt key and type one of the letters below and then pressing Enter. This will allow the user to access the relevant page on the website at any point. For example, the Railway Heritage Committee website uses a system where the underlined letter of each link is used as the access key. Below is the list of Access Keys used.

H - Home
A - About the RHC
N - Latest News
B - British Railway History
O - Annual Reports
D - Artifact Database
L - Useful Links
O - Document Downloads
C - Contact Details
K - Access Keys
S - Site Map
Y - Accessibility

Image Tags
The website also takes advantage of Image Alt Tags which allows those who are unable to see the image itself to view a description of the image, where needed. This is useful if a user has images turned off in their browser software.

Font Sizes
The size of text can be easily changed on the site. For example, in Internet Explorer, the user can hold down the Ctrl key and use the scroll wheel of their mouse to make text larger or smaller. They could also go to View > Text Size within the Internet Explorer menu.

Form Navigation
Browsing through forms is made even easier through the use of the Tab key, which allows visitors to be able to navigate through a form much more easily than using the mouse clicks to enter information, which could pose difficult for those with disabilities.

Keyboard Navigation
The user can navigate the website and view all the content without the need of their mouse. This is useful for those with mobility issues. The user can Tab through all the links and form elements and/or use the Access Keys.

Useful Links