Accessibility

We are committed to making this site useful and accessible to all users and we’re continually working to improve it.

We aim to achieve high standards of accessibility and where possible to conform to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The purpose of these guidelines is to explain how website owners can make web content more accessible for people with disabilities.

Our site is built with standards compliant HTML and CSS and is progressively enhanced using JavaScript. It is designed to work on smart phones, tablets, desktops, and any other device that includes a web browser. This leads to a better experience for job seekers who often carry out tasks across a number of different devices. We aim to provide a consistent user experience where all information and navigation is easy to find and learn.

We're continually working towards bringing all areas of the site up to the same level of web accessibility. Should you experience any difficulty, or if you would like to tell us how we could do things better, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Accessibility help

Skip-to links

The site includes “skip-to” links at the top of each page. These links enable you to drop down to the main page content, skipping repetitive navigation and therefore getting to where you want to be quicker.

Zooming

Modern browsers include a page magnification or zoom tool. Because the site is flexibly designed, zooming does not break the page layout. Instead, content is reflowed to best suit the current zoom level.

Colour

Background and foreground colours have been chosen to provide enough contrast to maximise visibility for all users on all devices. These colours are controlled within the CSS, which can be overridden by altering your browser settings.

Tabbed interaction

Some areas of the site use tabbed containers to allow you to select the information you want to read and stop the page from looking overcrowded. All content that is visually hidden (for example inactive tab content) can be found and read by screen readers.

JavaScript

We treat JavaScript as an enhancement and not a requirement. The site will still be useable if JavaScript is disabled, not loaded or broken.

Readability

We have used plain, simple language and have tried not to use jargon where possible. Our aim being to ensure that our site is both accessible and understandable to as many people as possible.

Please visit the BBC’s My web my way for comprehensive accessibility help that enables computer users to make the most of the Internet whatever their ability or disability.