Access Statement

Browsealoud

Listen to Podium Online:

Browsealoud is a new feature available Podium Online which reads aloud our web pages. The service is intended to enable people with dyslexia or mild visual impairments and those who do not speak English as their first language to access our website.  The service can be accessed by simply clicking on the Browsealoud icon and downloading the free plug-in from the Browsealoud website. It is well worth taking a few minutes to install the plug-in as it will allow access to many more websites which use the Browsealoud service. 

How does Browsealoud work?

After downloading the plug-in, run the software and a control bar will appear. You can either use the controls to listen to the site or simply hover over the content that you wish to read by using your mouse.There is also an option to visualise the words which are being spoken in large lettering at the top of the screen. The Browsealoud software can also be configured in such a way that a choice of voice styles and colour schemes can be used to make web browsing with on this site easy and enjoyable.

Take the Browsealoud Video Tour

Design

This site uses cascading style sheets (CSS) for visual layout. All pages are built using structured markup so that if your browser or browsing device does not support style sheets (or you choose to turn them off), the content of each page is still readable. Very basic styles are implemented for Netscape 4 owing to its quirky interpretation of CSS.

This site uses relative font sizes so that you can adjust the size of the text if you find it too small or too large. Access this feature with the View > Text Size option on the menu bar at the top of the browser window. In Netscape 6+, Mozilla and Firefox browsers, you can also adjust text size by holding down the CTRL key and pressing the + and - keys. Windows users with a wheel mouse can adjust text size by holding the CTRL key and turning the wheel.

Navigation

Navigation is consistent throughout all pages of this site. Every page includes links to the Text Only version (access key 1) and the Search form (access key 4).

All pages include a "skip navigation" link to bypass the navigation bar. This enables users of text-only browsers and people navigating with tab keys rather than a mouse to jump straight to the page content. (On visual browsers this link is invisible if your browser deals correctly with cascading style sheets.)

All links can be followed in any browser, even if scripting is turned off.

Web Standards

All pages on this site meet the Priority 1 requirements of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; many of the Priority 2 and 3 requirements are also met. Further accessibility modifications are under review.

Most pages on this site now validate to the HTML 4.01 Strict specification. Non-validating pages are under review. All style sheets validate to the W3C standard.