We want our website to be usable and accessible to all. As such we are developing it to conform to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Level AAA, which ensures that a certain web accessibility standard has been achieved and is maintained.
The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is committed to making this website accessible to everyone, regardless of the technology being used or the ability of the user. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and we adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user-friendly for all people.
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.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of this site, please contact us, as we are continually striving to improve the experience for all visitors.
Help using this website
The following highlights the various issues we have addressed with the objective of achieving a high level of accessibility.
Viewing this site
This site has been designed for a screen resolution of 1024 pixels or greater and for viewing on colour monitors. Our site has been designed to be compatible with most leading web browsers including Internet Explorer (versions 6 and upwards), Firefox 3 and upwards, Safari 3 and 4 and Google Chrome.
Navigation
The navigation has been built to be consistent throughout the website to help you easily find what you are looking for.
Colours
Colours used on our site have been chosen so they provide a sufficient contrast for all users to read the pages easily.
Links
Text links are written so that they make sense when read out of context. Links to external sites and to documents will open in the same browser tab/window.
Imagery
Images on this site are accompanied by a brief alternative text which, where appropriate, identifies an image or its function. This alternative text (alt text) is generally only visible when the browser's automatic image loading feature is turned off.
Documents
To read PDF documents you will need to have the Adobe Acrobat reader which you can download for free from the Adobe website. For accessing PDF documents with a screen reader please refer to the Access Adobe website which provides useful tools and resources. Adobe also has a free online conversion tool for PDF documents.
Text size
Text sizes on this website are scalable which means users can easily increase the size of the text on a page if required using their browser settings.
Follow the instructions below to increase the text size with the most common browsers. Please note there may be slight degradation in the layout of pages using a larger text size.
Internet Explorer (6.0 or higher)
- Select View from the menu bar or press Alt and V
- Choose Text Size from the dropdown menu
- Choose your preferred text size
Firefox (2.0 or earlier)
- Select View or from the menu bar or press Alt and V
- Choose Text Size from the dropdown menu
- Choose your preferred text size
- Alternatively press Ctrl (on a PC) or Apple (on a Mac) and + to increase the text size; Ctrl or Apple and - to decrease the text size; Ctrl or Apple and 0 returns you to the default 'normal' size.
Firefox (3.0 or higher)
- Select View or from the menu bar or press Alt and V
- Choose Zoom from the dropdown menu
- Choose Zoom In or Zoom Out to change the size of both text and images (to change just text and not images select Zoom text only first).
Safari (2.0 or higher)
- Open the View menu
- Select the Make Text Bigger option
- Alternatively press Apple and + to increase the text size; Apple and - to decrease the text size; Apple and 0 returns you to the default 'normal' size.
Screen reader users
Visitors using recent versions of screen readers can navigate through the content on a page using the following keystrokes:
- H to navigate through all the headings on a page
- Shift and H to cycle backwards through the headings
- Insert and F6 to provide a list of all headings
