Accessibility Guidelines

We have intended this website to be accessible to everyone including those with sight, audio and motor impairment restrictions.

In particular, we aim to use a web font so all text is easy to read. We have appropriate alt tags for images to convey information. We ensure that navigation through our websites works in a consistent way. We do not rely on just colour as the only way of giving information. We avoid the use of images of text wherever possible, and provide equivalent text links that consist of images.

Here are a few helpful ways in which you can start using the website more easily:

To enlarge text on the site

On the browser Tools menu select ‘Internet Options’

On the General tab, select ‘Accessibility’

Tick the ‘Ignore font sizes specified on web pages’ check box

Click on ‘OK’

On the browser menu select ‘view’

Click ‘text size’

Choose the size of text

To change text and/or colour on the site

On the browser Tools menu

select ‘Internet Options’

On the General tab, select ‘Colour’

Deselect the ‘Use Windows Colours’ tick box

Select the box next to ‘Text’ and

choose a colour

Click on ‘OK’

Select the box next to ‘Background’ and

choose a colour

Click on ‘OK’

To change the size of the window of the site on the browser View menu select ‘Full screen’ or press F11

To change the colour of links displayed on a screen

On the browser Tools menu

select ‘Internet Options’

On the General tab,

select ‘Accessibility’

Click on ‘Select ignore colours

specified on Web pages’ (should contain a tick)

Click ‘OK’

Select ‘General’ tab and click on ‘Colours’

Turn off the ‘Use hover colours’ tick box (should not contain a tick)

Select ‘Visited’ and choose the colour that suits you best

Click OK

Select ‘Not Visited’ and choose the colour that suits you best

Click OK

Select ‘OK’ for ‘Colours’

Select ‘OK’ for ‘Internet Options’

Where to start

Use the sitemap to get an overview of what is on the site.

How the Site is built for Accessibility

Standards

All pages on this site are WCAG AA approved, complying with all priority 1 and 2 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Whilst we would like to say this is categorically so it is a judgement call; many guidelines are intentionally vague and can not be tested automatically. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance.

We have strived to make all pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict.

Layout

The site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control all of the presentation and layout. Tables are only used for data presentment.

As a result screen reader users can use the screen reader’s navigation key to get around the site. If you are listening to the site, menus are grouped together in a more logical fashion.

Content

The content has been written and formatted to make it accessible. For example:

Headings highlight sections of text
Sentences are short with the meaning at the beginning. Links use meaningful text forms can be navigated using the tab key.

Accessibility Barriers

Through research of standard guidelines, SMT GB are continually working to improve the accessibility of our sites that we have, in the meantime should you experience any difficulties please contact us explaining the problems you encountered.

Contact

If you are experiencing difficulties accessing the site or have any comments please do not hesitate to contact our customer services department.