Communities and Local Government
A selection of images representing communities.
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Department for Communities and Local Government Website Accessibility Policy
Core tasks and conformance level
The Department is committed to ensuring our websites are as accessible as possible to users.
Website accessibility is defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in three categories of Single A, Double A and Triple A. This site has been developed to meet WCAG 1.0 level AA compliance and follows the appropriate government guidelines.
This website was also designed in line with the British Standards Institute publicly available specification PAS 78:2006 - Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites.
Technology
This website uses standard World Wide Web consortium (W3C) technologies such as html, xhtml and CSS and these have been developed to meet the WCAG AA compliance level (AAA where possible). Non W3C technologies used include JavaScript, PDF and video content.
JavaScript - where JavaScript is used the content should still be accessible to users who have disabled JavaScript in their browser.
PDF documents - large documents and publications are published as PDF (Portable Document Format) files along with a Microsoft Word version of the document. On the summary web page for such content there is a unique code for each publication and a link for users to request the content in an alternative format such as printed, Braille or audio.
Video - there are a small number of video files published on this site - in all cases a transcript is published alongside the video file.
Exceptions
Some of the older legacy PDFs on the site may not meet the latest Adobe accessibility standard.
Alternative formats such as printed, audio and Braille versions of the Department's publications are available on request by following the link on all pages with downloadable content - alternativeformats@communities.gsi.gov.uk
Further details at http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/help/accessibility/accessingourpublications
Feedback
If you have any queries regarding the accessibility of this website please contact us via the following page: http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/contact
Accessibility testing process
This site was independently audited for accessibility and usability during the design phase in May 2007.
The objectives of the accessibility testing were as follows:
- Perform automated code checks to validate the key templates as WCAG Double A compliant.
- Perform a manual code check of the templates to validate that the templates employ accessibility best practice.
- Testing the templates through a series of tasks by users from different accessibility groups using a range of assistive technology.
Disabled user testing was carried out by 2 users from each of the following groups using sample of web pages.
- Severe vision impaired user - screen reader (Jaws)
- Medium vision impaired use - magnification software (Zoomtext)
- Mid vision impaired use - large text in browser with high contrast windows colour preferences
- Medium motor difficulties - keyboard only user with no access to mouse
- Medium dyslexic user - no special access methodologies
Further tests (consisting of automated and manual checks) will be carried out every 18 months the next one is due in September 2010.
