Help using this website

The following highlights the various issues we have addressed with the objective of achieving a high level of accessibility.

• Navigation
• The navigation is logical and consistent throughout the website
• Clicking on the Zinc logo at the top of any page will take you back to the homepage
• There is a site search at the top of each page
• There is a site map accessed from the bottom of each page

Text

• Content is written as clearly as possible in a clear, readable font.
• Headings are clear and follow a logical structure
• Text can be reduced or enlarged in size. This can be done using the built-in text resize tool accessed from links at the top of every page. Please note: Our text resizing tool stores your preference on your computer. This means that whatever option you have selected remains active when navigating the site. Your preferences can be changed at any time and the settings can be returned to default using the tool.
• Text size can also be changed in most browsers by using View > Text Size in the browser menu bar or using the key combination of Ctrl and "+/-".

Links

• Links are written to make sense out of context
• Where applicable, links may also have title attributes which describe the destination of the link in greater detail.
• Links open in the same window unless otherwise stated (where the link will contain a warning either in the link itself or the title attribute of the link).
• Links within content are identified by being underlined and highlight on keyboard focus

Downloads

• Links to documents will include filename, format and file size.
• To read PDF documents you will need to have the Adobe Acrobat reader which you can download for free from the Adobe website. The Adobe website also includes further information on PDF accessibility.

Images

• All graphics and images in our website have alternative text that describes the contents or function of the image. This description will be displayed when images are turned off, on a text-only browser or as a 'tool tip' in certain browsers when the mouse pointer is moved over the image.
• Complex images will link to a text based description of the image.

Colour

• Colours used on our site have been chosen so they provide sufficient contrast for all users to read the pages easily.

Forms

• Form fields have appropriate text labels, fieldsets and legends
• Errors within a form will be flagged up before the form can be submitted

Tables

• Tables have not been used for layout purposes
• Data tables will have appropriate summaries explaining the purpose of the content within them

Multimedia

• Videos have not been set to play automatically.

Accessibility compliance

• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the common standards followed on accessible websites. This website aims to conform to level AA of the WCAG v2.0.
• The website has been developed to conform to W3C standards for HTML (HyperText Mark up Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Additional technologies including JavaScript have been used but the site is not reliant on these to provide access to content.

Browser Compatibility

• This site has been optimised for a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels or greater and for viewing on colour monitors. The site has been designed to be compatible with most leading web browsers including Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 3.6+, Apple Safari 4+ and Google Chrome.

Useful Links

If you need more information and guidance on using the web and your computer, we have provided some useful links to help (the following links will all open in a new browser window):

• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Better Web Browsing Guide
• BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) My Web, My Way
• Microsoft Accessibility
• Apple Accessibility
• RNIB (Royal National Institute for Blind People)
• JAWS: a time-limited demonstration version of this Windows screen reader software
• Lynx: a free text-only web browser