Accessibility

General

We have built this site to conform to W3C standards for XHTML and CSS, and we strive to achieve AAA accessibility rating against the web content accessibility 1.0/2.0 (WCAG).

We hope that this means our site will be viewable by the widest ranges of devices both now and in the future.

Below are a number of additional notes and recommendations of interest to visitors to the website who are using assistive technologies or mobile devices, or who may have restrictions on the use of Javascript due to company policy or device limitations.

Screen readers and PDAs

Navigation and content is available even if you do not have Javascript activated.

Screen reader setting recommendations

For users of JAWS, we recommend the following sort order 'title|text|alt|href' as the best combination to set.
We have built into our site a 'skip links' alt tag for standard screen readers to offer users an option to skip directly to the content of the page if they so choose.

Access Keys

Access Keys provide a quick way to navigate round the site without using a mouse, and on this site are based on the UK Government Access Keys system. The keys are used in conjunction with Alt or Ctrl and Enter keys which vary depending on your browser.

1. Hold down

'Alt' key if using Internet Explorer for Windows
'Alt & Shift' key if using Mozilla/Firefox
'Shift' and 'Esc' together if using Opera (note Opera ignores numeric Access Keys)

2. And simultaneously select a key from the list below it

3. Press 'Enter' if using Internet Explorer for Windows PC - other browsers go to the page immediately.

0 - Accessibility details
1 - Return to homepage
3 - Site Map
8 - Terms & Conditions

These keys have been selected so as not to conflict with those in use by assistive technologies such as JAWS, Supernova and HomePageReader.

External sites

The Scottish Government is not responsible for the content or accessibility of other sites linked to and from this website.

Links and images

Note that for all links to documents on this site, the type and file size is shown.

Typically a 100 kilobyte file will take about 15 seconds to download on a 56K modem.
Any links which open the same browser window, but will be indicated by text or by the 'external window' icon.
All trivial images have null Alt text.

Problems accessing documents

If you have any problems accessing the information or documents published on this website, please email PositiveAboutScience@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.
Adobe links
The Adobe site offers:

Free Adobe Acrobat reader - we recommend the latest version for the most up-to-date Accessibility features
Accessibility Conversion tools may help you convert from one format to another
PDF Accessibility information from Adobe

The Scottish Government wants to make this website as accessible as possible. Please let us know if there is anything we could do to make it easier for you to access it, by email.