Accessibility statement
Worcestershire County Council is committed to
providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible
audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are actively
working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website
and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and
guidelines.
Accessibility options
Access Keys
The following Access keys apply to the Worcestershire County
Council website. 
- Skip to the content - Alt+S
- Home page - Alt+1
- Sitemap - Alt+3
- Search the site - Alt+4
- Accessibility options - Alt+0
Web Site accessibility Features
We offer the following accessibility features on our site:
- Sitemap
This is linked to at the top of every page
in the form of an A to Z. There is also a hidden link
directly before the A to Z that is spoken by screen-reading
software and will appear when 'tabbed to' using a keyboard which
allows you to skip past it.
- 'Skip to Content’
At the top of every
page is a link that is spoken by screen-reading software and will
appear when 'tabbed to' using a keyboard. It is the first link and,
when selected, will skip past the rest of the menu items and
commence at the beginning of the main page content.
Headings and navigation menus
HTML heading tags are used to convey document structure. H1 tags
are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles etc.
Navigation menus are marked up as HTML lists. This ensures that
the number of links in the list is read out at the start and it can
be skipped easily. We also provide consistent navigation
Colours and Font Size
The following settings have been added to the site to provide
better accessibility to all users, these settings will only be
saved for this visit. Please click on the remember settings button
to save the settings for future visits. (This will save a cookie to
your computer. More on Cookies)
Changing your browser settings
The BBC my web my way website explains the many
ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse
settings to make the web more accessible for you. You may benefit
from viewing this website with a larger text size or a different
colour scheme than the one automatically displayed. The following
guidelines will help you control the size of text and colours when
using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browsers.
These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web
browser operates, to make things easier for people who have
difficulty seeing.
These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web
browser operates, to make things easier for people who are
blind.
These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web
browser operates, to make things easier for people who are deaf or
have difficulty hearing.
These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web
browser operates, to make things easier for people who have
difficulty with words.
These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web
browser operates, to make things easier for people who find a mouse
difficult to use.
Useful Links
- Browse
Aloud is a computer program that reads aloud all website
content including PDF and MS Word documents
- NonVisual Desktop
Access (NVDA) is a free and
open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating
system. Providing feedback via synthetic speech and Braille, it
enables blind or vision impaired people to access computers running
Windows for no more cost than a sighted person.
- Free site translation with Google Translate or
Yahoo Babelfish
Accessibility and usability of our site
This website endeavours to conform to level
Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
2.0.
Whilst Worcestershire County Council strive to
adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility
and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of
the website. We are aware that some of our existing forms and pdf
files are not fully accessible and are currently rewriting our most
popular ones. We will also ensure that all new forms and pdf
files created adhere to the accessibility and usability
standards.
Contact Information
We are always looking at ways to improve accessibility on our
website. If you've experienced any accessibility problems whilst
using this site, we would welcome your suggestions and
comments.