Accessibility
Introduction
North Yorkshire County Council recognises its responsibilities and obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act and strives to provide the best possible service to all in the community.
The site's layout takes into account users who are blind or visually impaired. It is compatible with popular screen reading software. If you have difficulties using a mouse, the site can be navigated using only a keyboard.
Below are some of the measures we have taken to ensure the accessibility of this website.
Making the North Yorkshire County Council Website more accessible
Navigational Aids
Access Keys
Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site.
On this site the home page and all archives define the following access keys in accordance with the UK Government access keys standard:
Access key 1 - Home page
Access key s - Skip to main content
Access key 3 - Sitemap
Access key 4 - Search where to shop
Access key 5 - Search where to eat
Access key 8 - Terms and conditions
Access key 9 - Contact us
Access key 0 - Accessibility statement (links to this page)
To use an access key:
On Microsoft Windows
If you use Internet Explorer version 4, Firefox, Mozilla or Netscape Navigator version 6 or later, hold down the ALT key and press the relevant access key (ALT + access key).
If you use Internet Explorer 5+ you then need to press ENTER to follow the link.
On Macintosh OS X
If you use Safari version 1.2 or later, Firefox, Mozilla or Internet Explorer version 5 or later, hold down CTRL and press the relevant access key.
Opera on Windows and Macintosh OS X
Hold down the SHIFT key and press ESC, release these keys, then press the access key to follow the link (SHIFT + ESC, access key).
Change site appearance
If you have any difficulty in reading the content of the site in it's default design, you may like to try changing the underlying style to the alternatives we provide. Your preferences will be saved into a cookie and applied to all pages on this site.
- Single column: This style reduces the layout of the page to a single column of text (like a book) rather than a multi-column layout (newspaper style) and increases the text size.
- Light on dark: This style also uses a single column layout of larger than normal text, but reverses the contrast so that light coloured text appears on a dark background.
In either case, you may continue to change the text size using your chosen browser's controls.
Text
All the most popular browsers allow text on the website to be displayed larger or smaller, depending on user preference or need.
On Microsoft Windows
If you use Firefox, Mozilla or Netscape Navigator version 6 or later, change the text size by holding down the CTRL key and press the plus key (CTRL + plus) or minus key (CTRL + minus) to increase or decrease the text size respectively.
If you use Internet Explorer, on the menu bar choose View > Text Size and then the desired size from the list.
On Macintosh OS X
In all the most popular browsers, excluding Opera, hold down the Command key and press the plus (CMD + plus) or minus (CMD + minus) key to increase or decrease the text size respectively.
In Opera on Windows and Macintosh OS X
Unlike other browsers, Opera uses a 'page zoom' feature to magnify text and images on a web page. To choose a different zoom level, from Opera's menu bar choose View > Zoom and then the percent of magnification you desire.
Images
All non-decorative images contain descriptive alt attributes (these are descriptions of images that are displayed as a text tag when you hold your mouse pointer over an image). These descriptive text tags work better when you are using Internet Explorer.
Technical Standards that we believe we are currently meeting
Standards compliance
In accordance with the technical guidelines of UK Cabinet Office e-Government handbook:
- All pages in the 'main' site (URLs beginning with 'http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/public') comply with all priority 1 and 2 guidelines of the W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0, Level AA.
- All pages in the main site validate as HyperText Markup Language (HTML) 4.01 Transitional.
- All pages use valid Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
DHTML
DHTML (i.e. JavaScript or VBScript) is not used anywhere in the 'main' site (URLs or web address’s beginning with 'http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/public') (section of the site. All URLs are real i.e. there are no 'javascript:' pseudo-links.
How are we doing?
We strive to make the North Yorkshire County Council website accessible to all. If there is an area you are having difficulty accessing or if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve the accessibility of this website, please let us know by contacting us.
