Accessibility
Here at AllKids.co.uk we are committed to ensuring our website is available to a wide audience. We are constantly trying to ensure that our website reaches for the highest standards of accessibility; however we understand that some of our users may still experience problems. If you have had any problems using our website please contact us and we will attempt to solve any problems you may have.
Accessibility Features
We have tried to incorporate a range of accessibility features designed to improve our sites accessibility and usability for our users:
Site Structure
The site structure of our site may differ from most sites available on the internet. The elements of a website are usually displayed in a common layout, with the structure following this layout. While our sites design follows this common layout our structure is designed so that the content appears first, this allows quick access to the content in our site to accessibility aids such as screen readers.
As a by-product of structuring our site this way means the main navigation of our site is structurally positioned at the base of the page. To combat this we include a Skip to Navigation link at the top of the page to allow quick movement to the navigation links.
Tab Index
The tabindex function allows navigation through our site using the tab key on a keyboard. This allows quick access to some of the most important elements of the page without the need for a mouse.
Using the F5 key will refresh the page and reset the tabindex at any time.
Access Keys
Part of having an accessible and usable website is to have clear methods of navigating around the website, to add to this our website utilises access keys. Access Keys allow quick navigation through a combination of keystrokes. Due to the limited number of available access keys we limit the number of access keys to a few key destinations of the website. The keystrokes required to activate an access key differ depending on your browser and operating system. These keystrokes are as follows:
- PC Browsers: ALT + * + ENTER (Required for Internet Explorer)
- Mac Browsers: CTRL + *
- Firefox 2.0: ALT + SHIFT + *
The * character above represents the unique key character for each access key listed below:
- 1 = Home
- 2 = Sitemap
- 3 = Contact
- 4 = Accessibility
If the above access keys do not work, please refer to your browsers help documentation, or feel free to contact us for help.
Text Scalability
To improve readability of our site we use relative text sizes. This allows manual control of the text size using browser controls, or keyboard shortcuts. Please refer to your browsers help documentation for more information.
Sitemap
Ease of navigation is important to use, however our site has reached a size that some users may find navigation difficult. To aid this we have created a sitemap that contains links to all the pages within the site as a comprehensive list.
Alt Text
Our website uses various images to provide a good graphical experience. Although kept to a minimum the images may be used to convey potentially important information. When this occurs the images have been given an alt tag, this tag contains a useful description of what the image shows. Where images do not convey important information no alt tag will be used.
Accessibility Barriers
Text Scalability
Increasing the size of text within the website can cause sections of the website to break; we have endeavored to keep these instances to a minimum within the constraints of the website design. If you find that all content on the site has become illegible please contact us and we will be happy to help and resolve the problem.
JavaScript
To improve the user experience sections of our website makes use of JavaScript code. Your browser must support JavaScript to use these controls. Where necessary, alternatives have been provided for users that do not use JavaScript, providing as close an experience as possible to those with JavaScript.
The All Kids website has been built and tested to conform as highly to XHTML and CSS web standards as possible and has been tested using web based accessibility checkers against both WCAG AAA and Section 508 accessibility specifications.
