Accessibility
Information about the council's commitment to web accessibility
East Renfrewshire Council is committed to producing websites and web resources that can be accessed by all users.
We are working hard to ensure that all pages produced on the website will conform to the AA standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines produced by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
As part of this work all of the templates for the website meet the highest standards and produce content in a non-table driven layout.
What is an accessible website?
An accessible website is one that allows users to navigate freely and view content without creating any barriers. This means that information has to be easy to reach and available to as many visitors as possible. To ensure that these challenges are met the webste must assume that there is no standard user or browsing device.
Visitors who have visual impairments or other circumstances often use extra computer accessories to help them browse the internet. We have gone to great lengths to allow these assistive technologies to interact with the site. The website does not use tables to control the layout of pages, instead it uses techniques which separate the content and the presentation.
Accessible features on the website
Standard layout and navigation structure across the site
Capacity for users to skip directly to the content area of the page
Headings and paragraphs on pages which aid navigation with alternative browsers
Text for links that make sense when read out of context
'Breadcrumb' trail to help with navigation within a section of the site
Access keys to jump to specific areas of the page / website
Cascading style sheets (CSS) are used for visual layout and presentation - on screen and print.
Relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified 'text size' option in visual browsers
Content which can be still be read even if your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all.
Technical compliance
We strive to ensure that the website pages meet W3C standards:
We aim to make our content comply with WAI- AA priority 1 & 2 guidelines whenever possible.
The website page templates validate as XHTML 1.1
Our stylesheets validate as CSS 2.1 with CSS 3 elements for devices that support it.
Web browser guidance
Our website has been designed and built to appear correctly on Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+. It has also been tested on Firefox, Safari, Opera and Google Chrome .
Contact us
We have done our best to ensure the website is as accessible as possible, however we realise that there are some technologies on this site, such as the eForms area, which may not reach all visitors in the same format.
If you do encounter any accessibility problems that affect or prevent your use of the website, please contact the webteam@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk and we will do our best to address the problem as soon as possible.
