Accessibility Statement
This website has been designed very much with accessibility issues in mind. Every effort has been made to ensure that as many visitors as possible are able to access and use it, regardless of differing abilities or technologies used.
Testing
This website has been tested for compatibility with the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer for Windows (v 5.5 & v 6.0)
- Internet Explorer for Macintosh (v 5.2)
- Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v 1.0)
- Mozilla Firefox for Macintosh (v 1.0)
- Opera for Windows (v 7.5)
- Opera for Macintosh (v 7.0)
- Netscape for Windows (v 7.02)
- IBM Home Page Reader for Windows (v 3.02) - see also Screen Readers below
- Internet Explorer for Macintosh (v 5.0)
- Safari for Macintosh (v 1.0)
Although some browsers may, in some cases, display pages slightly differently than others, the functionality and usability of the site is the same in all.
It has also been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and we are confident that it meets at least the minimum requirements (Priority 1) as well as the majority of Priority 2 & 3.
Screen Readers
This site has been very carefully constructed and tuned to work with IBM Home Page Reader (v 3.02) and various elements have been added to help the visually impaired user as much as is possible during their visit. Such features include (but are not limited to): clear verbal identification of navigation; the ability to skip over navigation straight into main content; and verbal separation of all links (navigation or otherwise).
All features have been tested practically.
Using the Site Without a Mouse
Mouseless visitors will find that they can navigate between pages by using the TAB key on their keyboard. Hitting the ENTER key when over a link (navigation or otherwise) will follow it to the appropriate page.
Tab indexing is also employed with our online forms in order to provide a logical route through the various entry fields.
Additionally, Access Keys have been assigned (on all pages) to important sections of the site. These keys (supported by most modern browsers) provide quick access to important areas.
For more information about Access Keys, please see the next section.
About Access Keys
Many browsers now support the use of Access Keys on websites in order to 'jump' to important information quickly. This website has assigned Access Keys to a number of important pages (specific assignment as recommended by the UK Government).
To access any of these specific pages, visitors with Windows-based browsers (such as later versions of Internet Explorer for Windows) should be able to hit the relevant letter or number (as indicated below) on their keyboard whilst holding down their ALT key (in some cases, this action may have to be followed by the ENTER key).
Macintosh users should find that holding down the CONTROL key on their keyboards whilst pressing one of the access keys listed below will produce the same effect.
- ALT or CONTROL + S - Skip to content
- ALT or CONTROL + 0 - Accessibility Statement page
- ALT or CONTROL + 1 - Home page
- ALT or CONTROL + 3 - Site map page
- ALT or CONTROL + 8 - Privacy Statement page
- ALT or CONTROL + 9 - Contact details page (includes link to general enquiry form)
Forms used on this Site
To make accessing the forms present on this site as easy as we can for as many visitors as we can, we have used (wherever possible) tab indexing, field focus and field labels.
TAB Indexing on forms allows access to each entry field (as well as the submit button) by the simple use of the TAB key on the keyboard. The presence or use of a mouse is not required.
Field focus highlights the entry fields (feature not available in Internet Explorer) with a contrasting border and background colour as they are tabbed or clicked into.
Field labels are applied to each field name (e.g. 'Please enter your name:') allowing them to be simply clicked on (with a mouse) in order to access the entry field itself.
Scripts and Plug-ins used on this Site
Client-side scripts (e.g. Javascript) are not used anywhere in this site. This means that with scripting capabilities disabled, the site is fully functional and completely unaffected.
Plug-ins, such as Flash, are also not used anywhere on the site. Visitors should find that they are able access, navigate and generally use the FK Short Stay website without the need to download additional software.
Images used on this Site
All images used on this site have either alt tags or title tags (or sometimes both) employed in order to provide an appropriate description of the image (or function behind it, in the case of images used as links) for those visitors with graphics switched off in their browsers or for those visually impaired visitors using screen readers.
The exception to this rule is in the case of images used for layout purposes only, as these offer no useful data to the visitor.
Styles, Text and Layouts used on this Site
The overall layout for pages on this site is created in valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional and does not use tables to control positioning of elements.
External stylesheets are employed to control page / text etc style, colours and positioning. If stylesheets are disabled in the browser, pages are still readable and fully functioning.
All pages are 'in-line', no 'pop-up' windows are ever spawned, either by request (following a link) or by random interaction with the site.
For the visually impaired, text sizes on this site can be increased or decreased at will by simply holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard (PC users) and scrolling backwards or forwards with the wheel on a wheel equipped mouse. For users without such equipment, the same effect can be achieved by using the web browser's own text size adjustment features.
Printing
All pages are printer friendly and should print without issue on standard A4 paper. Even though the design on screen is obviously in a landscape format, visitors have no need to change the orientation of the printing. All pages should print in portrait.
Please note that, in order to facilitate A4 portrait paper printing, print-outs will be predominantly textual. Navigation and background / design images will be removed (although body images will remain).