Website Accessibility Features

Details of the accessibility features which have been incorporated within the Kings Lynn Web site.

The Kings Lynn Web site has been designed and developed to provide users with a more enjoyable interactive experience of the organisation. The new site is designed to be inclusive and to provide access to all users regardless of technological or physical disability.

The following highlights some of the initiatives designed to make the Web site interface and content more usable and accessible.

Overall Framework and Interface

Changing Text Size

W3C Compliance

Assistive Technology

Viewing PDF Files

Viewing Microsoft Word Documents

Visual Design

Speech Enabled Website (Browsealoud)

Overall Framework and Interface

The overall Web site has been designed to provide users with a seamless view and user experience of the council.

The framework and interface has been designed to provide a consistent structure throughout the Web site, so users will know exactly where to find navigation, content and important functionality and information.

The structure of the interface is broken down as follows:

Top Bar – This includes the Kings Lynn branding, accessibility links and breadcrumb links. All these features are accessible from every page within the Web site.
Left Panel – This contains the main navigation system and links, which provide access to the key areas and content of the Web site. Clicking on a top-level navigation link takes you to a section homepage and the navigation bar also expands to show sub-level categories. The architecture of the site is designed so key content can be accessed within 3 clicks.
Content Area – The central content area updates to present the page of content that has been selected.
Right Panel – This provides access to the site search engine and items of content, which are related to the page of content you are viewing. Related items include links to internal pages, related news, external Web sites and document downloads including PDF,s and Word. All links to external Web sites and documents open in a separate window.
Footer – This contains links to privacy information and other statements.

Changing Text Size

Within the top of the interface there is a tool which enables you can change the text size within the page.

W3C Compliance

The Kings Lynn Web site has been designed to comply with the guidelines issued by W3C/WAI. All templates meet priority 3 (AAA) guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which is the highest level of conformance that can be achieved.

All templates have been Bobby approved to priority 3 (AAA) and all warnings identified by Bobby have been manually checked for conformance.

Assistive Technology

Users with disabilities use assistive technology to aid with the use of a Web site and to increase the overall user experience and the ability to complete tasks that would not be achievable otherwise.

As part of the development process the Web site has been tested using the following technology:

Screen Readers
Text Only Browsers
Screen Magnifiers

If you experience any problems using these tools or have any recommendations to improve accessibility using assistive technology please contact us, with your feedback and we'll do our best to make improvements.

Viewing PDF Files

You need Acrobat Reader software to view Adobe Acrobat PDF files. If you do not have the software installed on your computer, you can download it for free from the Adobe Acrobat Reader website.

If you are using a speech to text reader or a browser with images switched off, you may find the following link useful:

Adobe accessibility resource centre

If you are unable to view a pdf file, you may need to download the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader

Viewing Microsoft Word Documents

In order to view, complete and then print the Microsoft Word documents you will need to have a copy of the Microsoft Word application installed on your computer or use a copy of the free Microsoft Word viewer.

You should have this viewer installed on you computer before you download one of our word documents. A copy of the free viewer is available for download from Microsoft

Visual Design

Colours – We have tried to use colours throughout the Web site that provide maximum contrast between foreground and background items and also various features on the page including headers, body text and hyperlinks.
Images – All interface graphics and images throughout the Web site have been assigned an Alt-text attribute, which describes the contents or function of the item.
Hyperlinks – We have chosen the standard hyperlink blue colour for all active hyperlink text items, as this is the most accessible and recognisable standard for link items.
CSS – Style-sheets have been used for all visual items and text. This means that you can change the text size form within the browser by selecting "View" and then "Text size".