South Gloucestershire Council recognises and values the provision of information on this website in a format which is accessible to all, regardless of ability or disability.
Standards compliance
To ensure that we meet the needs of all our customers we have developed our own set of standards and guidance based on the recommendations of Shaw Trust.
We have programmed our website following accessibility guidelines and web standards
We try to maintain WAI Level Double-A accessibility.
The Government requires that all public sector web sites - whether for central or local government - should meet the W3C's guidelines on accessibility to WAI Level Double-A standard.
We strive to achieve and maintain levels of accessibility that conform to the Double-A standard, but in reality it is very hard for a large website with so many authors to maintain such compliance.
Through further development of our web services and the help of our 3rd party suppliers we are striving to improve our compliance and aim to attain the WAI Level Triple-A standard as soon as possible.
The site is developed using valid XHTML (v1.0 Transitional) and CSS (v2.1). Our site content is separated from presentational elements, which makes it available to any visitors that use technologies such as a screen reader or text only browser.
You may confirm the validity of our XHTML at http://validator.w3.org/ and CSS at http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
What is an accessible website?
An accessible site is one that accommodates the full range of users. Designing for accessibility therefore means accepting that, for online information, there is:
- no standard information user, and,
- no standard device for browsing information
An accessible web site does not exclude anybody due to:
- their abilities, or
- the method they choose to access the web
Accessible websites prioritise clear content, structure and ease of navigation over frilly aspects of design, however they also need not be visually unattractive, nor are they prevented from using the latest web technologies, provided that all information is still accessible to users.
Access keys
Access keys are keyboard shortcuts which allow the user to navigate around a website or a piece of computer software without having to use a mouse or other pointing device. Find out more on our access keys page.
Change text size and contrast
You can use the icons at the top of every web page to change the size of the text that appears on this website.
The icon above changes the page to a large text size and high visibility colour scheme.
You may also use your browser settings to change the text size for all the web sites that you visit. The technique for doing this is slightly different depending on the browser that you use:
- Internet Explorer 7: Select the 'Page' menu, then one of the options under 'Text Size'. The default setting is Medium
- Internet Explorer 6: Select the 'View' menu, and select one of the options under 'Text Size'.
- Mozilla Firefox: Select the 'View' menu, then 'Text Size', then select Increase, Decrease or Normal.
- Opera: Select the 'View' menu, then one of the 'Zoom' percentage options.
- Netscape: Select the 'View' menu, then one of the 'Text Zoom' options.
Other browsers may also have similar options available. Please consult the documentation provided with your browser if similar options to the ones above aren't available.
A note about interactive mapping
The council strives to meet the needs of computer users with visual impairment or other conditions that limit accessibility. Due to the graphically intensive nature of our interactive mapping application, this geographic information can not be currently presented in a fully accessible format.