We have tried to design our website to make it as accessible as possible whilst
remaining visually interesting and easy to use.
Currently, this website includes a variety of features which are summarised as follows:
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Images and Alt and Title tags
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A text only printer friendly option
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Coding Standards
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Access Keys
Images and alt tags
We have avoided using excessive graphics within the website where possible in an
effort to maximise quick download times and access to information which cannot be
read if in image format.
Where images are used we have added 'Alt' tags - text alternatives so that you will
still know what the image is meant to convey even if it doesn't load or if you've
have chosen to browse with the images switched off or you are using an assistive
technology like a screen reader to browse the web page rather than view.
A text only printer friendly option
Users are able to switch from the default graphic view to printer friendly view
enabling greater ease in printing web pages.
Coding standards and Double-A conformance
This website is built using code compliant with
World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C) standards for XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets. W3C
is the governing authority on web development standards and practices.
The site displays correctly with current browsers, and using standard XHTML code
means that any future browsers will also display this website correctly.
We are continuously improving this website to ensure that pages conform to the Double-A
level of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
The Accessibility Guidelines explain how to make Web content accessible to people
with disabilities. Conformance to these Guidelines helps to make the Web more accessible
to users with disabilities and benefits all users.
There may be a few pages that do not conform to all the guidelines. Whilst every
effort is made to ensure the whole site conforms, with many web contributors, this
is an ongoing process.
If you have any problem accessing any information on the site, you can advise us
by contacting us by email at
webteam@hounslow.gov.uk
and we will endeavour to provide the information in a suitable manner.
Access keys
The ability to navigate the site using other means than a mouse can be important
for those who have difficulties in using a mouse or other pointing devices.
To help with this we have set up 'Access Keys' on the site which allow easy navigation
to the main pages on the website.
In addition to helping those who have difficulty using a Mouse, access keys allow
quick access to the main pages for anyone who prefers to use the keyboard.
To use the access keys on this site follow these steps
(PC users) :
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For Internet Explorer users, Press
and hold the 'alt' key. For Mozilla Firefox users, press and hold the 'shift' and
'alt' keys.
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Press the required letter or number
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Press the return key and the browser
will load the relevant page.
Please note that if you are using a Mac, you should follow these steps:
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Press and hold the 'ctrl' key
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Press the required letter or number
(Please note Access Keys may not work on all browsers)