Accessibility

It is our aim, as far as possible, to make our website as accessible as possible to the widest range of people.

All web content produced by Southampton City Council will therefore conform to W3C/WAI's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Conformance Level AA wherever this is possible. New, updated, and existing Web content provided for our site by third-parties will conform to Conformance Level A.

How can I make the pages easier to access and view?

In most browsers there are options you can set to improve the accessibility of the web site you are viewing. In Internet Explorer select Tools from the menu at the top of the screen, then select Internet Options. Click the Accessibility button and you will find a number of options you can turn on or off. For example you can override the size settings of a web page so that you can choose the size you require.

The size of text can be increased in most browsers as well. In Internet Explorer, select View from the menu and then Text Size. Try different sizes until you find the one that matches your individual requirements. The format of some pages may be affected if you use very large text sizes.

Adobe Acrobat PDF documents:

Many documents and reports within the site are published in PDF (Portable Document Format), and usually in Microsoft Word format too.
Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services that improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents at http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/index.html.

Readspeaker

We use the Readspeaker speech system on our website so that visitors with visual problems can hear the content of the pages. At the bottom of every page there is a link titled "Listen" which will open up Readspeaker. The web content can then be listened to in whole or part by using the different controls to activate the speech system.

Accessibility tests:

We are working hard to ensure all content conform to the highest standards, including web pages produced by supplier systems. With our new web site design our objective is to meet the highest web accessibility standards. The home page and most content pages now conform to WAI AA accessibility standards; we are working to ensure that the remainder conform at least to WAI A standards.

W3C WAI:

WAI, in co-ordination with organisations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.

WAI produces accessibility guidelines. Content providers can use these logos on their sites to indicate a claim of conformance to a specified level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. More information on the accessibility guidelines can be found at the WAI website.

Mapping systems accessibility

Due to the graphic intensive nature of our mapping service, geographic information and the maps within the city cannot be displayed in a fully accessible format, as defined by current guidelines. Further information including details of how to request the information in an alternative format is available on the Mapping Help pages.