Welcome to accessibility
Cognisco believes that accessibility should, in no way, be an optional ‘extra’ and should instead be considered as fundamental at every phase of this site’s development. Therefore, Cognisco is committed to ensuring that this Web site is as accessible as possible to all audiences (including those with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments) and strives to meet the fundamental requirements under the United Kingdom's Disability Discrimination Act, in accordance with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (1.0).
As a user of this site, if you have any questions or further suggestions about the accessibility of this site, please contact Cognisco or use the feedback form, as we continue to strive to improve the experience for all visitors.
Alternate layouts and large-text versions
Three separate layouts are offered to users. Together with the default way of viewing the site, there is a simple layout which removes imagery which doesn't assist the content, and also offers a larger font. Another large-text version increases the font size even more for assisting readability.
These layouts can be reached via the floating blue panel, entitled ‘Accessibility’, in the top left of this window.
Site Map
You can access the site map from any page by selecting 'site map' from either the floating blue accessibility panel, from the footer, or by using access key 'm'.
Access keys
We use access keys on all menu items so users can navigate to the main parts of the Cognisco Web site without using the mouse. View the table of access keys.
Access key 's' will also skip the header and navigation, and take the user straight the main content of that page.
Directly following the site header is a Skip to main content link [access key = s]. Users of screen readers can bypass the navigation and skip straight to the main content of each page by selecting this link or by using access key 's'.
Structured semantic markup
All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for the page title, H2 tags for main headings within the document and H3 tags for subheadings. Visitors using recent versions of screen readers can navigate through these headings and, hence, each logical section of a page, using the following keystrokes
- H to cycle forwards through the headings
- Shift + H to cycle backwards through the headings
- 1 to navigate to the next level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the next heading on this level)
- Shift + 1 to navigate to the previous level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the previous heading on this level)
- INSERT + F6 to provide a list of all headings
Site-wide searching
Visitors can now search the whole of the Cognisco Web site using the search box at the top of every page.
Style sheets are used only for presentation
This easily enables a user to have his/her own preferred style sheet. If your browser or browsing device does not support style sheets at all (eg certain PDA and mobile phones), the content of each page is still readable.
Colours
We've designed all pages on this Web site so that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour.
Alternative content
All content images used in this site include a descriptive ALT attribute. Any images which have empty alt tags are insignificant to the use of the site and/or are purely decorative, such as spacer images or design features. Screen readers will ignore these images to avoid relaying irrelevant information.
Additionally, and where necessary, links have a title attribute which describes the target in greater detail.
Scripts
This Web site uses some JavaScript elements to improve usability and the browsing experience for people with modern Web browsers. However, these pages are also designed to degrade gracefully to ensure all content is still accessible, should Javascript be turned off.
Link phrases make sense when read out of context
To aid users who prefer to scan pages for relevant content quickly, this site uses mostly links which also make sense if read in context on their own, as well as part of a longer sentence. Therefore, instances of ‘click here’ links are kept to a minimum.
Tabular data are marked up correctly
Where tabular data are used, headings, captions and summaries are correctly marked up.
Standards compliance
As much as possible, all pages comply with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to Levels 1 and 2. We have tried to comply with as many of the Level 3 guidelines as possible; your feedback is welcome on further measures which can be taken to improve the accessibility of the site.
At the time of writing, many pages on this Web site validate as closely as possible to the XHTML 1.0 Transitional protocol.
Links to resources
There are some excellent resources on the Web which have been thoroughly researched and are likely to grow organically and go into much more detail than we are able to do:
Advice from the BBC, showing users how to make full use of accessibility settings in browsers and operating systems.
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, explaining the reasons behind each guideline.
W3C accessibility techniques, explaining how to implement each guideline.
W3C accessibility checklist – a developer’s guide to accessibility.
Contact us
If you have any questions or further suggestions about the accessibility of this site, please contact us here, as we continue to strive to improve the experience for all visitors.
