We understand that for people with a disability browsing the internet can be made significantly easier or harder, depending on the level of commitment made to making the website accessible.
We are committed to ensuring our website is as accessible as possible to all users with various needs, especially people who are blind or have low vision.
A number of accessibility features have been implemented across our website. We will be continually striving to maintain and further improve the accessibility of the website. If you have feedback on our site, please use our feedback form. This will ensure the best possible result and experience possible from all our users with accessibility needs.
We have also provided some tips below on using this website. For additional information, you can also visit BBC My Web, My Way to watch videos of how these customisations – either by using accessibility features on your computer or through installing assistive technologies– might suit you.
Using this website
Navigation
- For keyboard only users we have a ‘skip to content’ and ‘skip to secondary navigation’ links at the top of each page, hidden from standard view, but will appear on keyboard focus.
- We have also prioritised the reading order of pages for screen readers, helping you get to where you need to go quicker.
- The site allows keyboard users to tab through all menus and content
- WAI-ARIA landmarks have been used to assist screen reader navigation.
Look and feel
We have ensured sufficient colour contrast is used throughout the site to assist with low vision and colour blind users, as well as people accessing the website on mobile devices where screen glare maybe an issue
Zooming
The website has been optimised to zoom to any desired level and on multiple devices. We recommend zooming, instead of changing the text size only.To zoom:
- In Internet Explorer, click the View menu, then select Zoom and choose a size that suits your needs.
- In Firefox, click the View menu, then select Text Size and then choose whether you would like to increase the size or decrease the size.
- In Chrome select the right hand menu, and in zoom press the – or + keys to change size.
- Alternatively, in Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the mouse wheel (if you have one), or press the Ctrl key and at the same time, push the - or + key.
To change the text size only:
- In Internet Explorer, click the View menu, then select Text Size and then choose larger or largest (the default is medium).
- In Firefox, click the View menu, then select Zoom, then Zoom Text Only. Then hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the mouse wheel (if you have one), or press the Ctrl key and at the same time, push the - or + key.
- In Chrome, open the right hand tool bar and select Settings, in the screen down the bottom select Show Advanced Setting, then under the heading Web Content you can change the Font size content to large or very large (the default is medium)
Links
- All links have descriptive text that clearly describe the content they lead to, for example, we do not use 'click here'.
Printable pages
All pages are optimised for printing offline. This will aid those who prefer to read content offline and/or cannot read them on a computer monitor.
In addition, we also have two print icons on all content pages that allow users to print in a standard, or larger print size.Videos
Vision Australia’s Digital Access team has provided advice and assistance to ensure accessibility. All videos are accompanied with transcripts. Where possible audio description and closed captioning is also provided.
The exceptions to this is links to third party content through this website, which is not fully compliant with our accessibility standards, and on occasion link to audio content (for example through our Radio) which does not have a transcript.
Slideshows
When tabbing through the homepage screen reader users will be presented with the option to disable the automatic movement of slideshows throughout the website. Cookies are used to remember the users preference for their next visit on using the same device. Users can still access all slides via the next and previous controls.