Accessibility

Help changing the appearance of websites

The following resources will help you modify your own browser and operating system preferences to suit your own needs:

• Advice from the BBC showing users how to make full use of accessibility settings in browsers and operating systems.
• Advice for Microsoft users
• Advice for Apple users

For more information on assistive technology (screen enlargers, screen readers, speech recognition systems, speech synthesizers, refreshable Braille displays, Braille embossers, talking word processors, large-print) for the visually impaired please visit the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) website.

The British Dyslexia Association website has information about accessibility issues people with Dyslexia may encounter.

Accessibility Statement

We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines.

Whilst Trowbridge Town Council strives to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.

We are also heavily reliant on non-HTML-based web content, particularly PDF files. We are investigating mechanisms for making PDF documents more accessible. You can find more information about the accessibility support within PDF documents on the adobe website.

We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall accessibility. In the meantime should you experience any difficulty in accessing the website, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Accessibility targets

All web pages will be assessed by the guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), available at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/

Trowbridge Town Council requires that:

• All new web pages should be written to at least AA standard
• All existing pages should meet at least A standard
• Pages will be bought up to AA standard as they are periodically revised
• Any third party who is engaged to design and build web pages for the council, whether hosted within or without the *.trowbridge.gov.uk domain, will be required to comply with these guidelines. Sites will be checked periodically
• New content will be either written or edited by a trained editor to ensure it is written as clearly as possible
• Legacy content will be re-edited where necessary as it is revised

Accessibility features of this website

The page layout and colour scheme are implemented using cascading style sheets (CSS) and can be over-ridden by the user. All text can be enlarged or reduced to suit your preferences.

The source code is structured so that the main content of the page precedes the navigation. The first link on every page will jump directly to the page content.

All pages start with a heading 1 element. Sub-headings are used to further divide the page.

Tables are only used for tabular data (that is, they are not used for layout purposes, except for one table on the homepage, and in a few parts of the constitution). Data tables are marked up correctly with table headings and scope attributes. We avoid using complex tables (that is, tables with two or more logical levels of headings).

We do not use access keys. Research suggests that these can sometimes conflict with shortcut keys used by assistive technologies.

All pages validate to an official W3C Document Type Definition. Pages are checked for compliance as part of the publishing process.

Accessibility Toolbar

A small accessibility icon on the right side of the page once clicked, allows the user to:

• Resize fonts (increase/decrease)
• Change page to Grayscale
• Show page with Negative Contrast
• Show page with High Contrast
• Show page with a Light Background
• Change Links to have Underline
• Change font to a Readable Font

You can enable or disable each of the options and make appropriate setting changes for each.

There is also a ‘Reset’ option to cancel all options.