Accessibility

This site is designed and intended to meet all Priority 1 checkpoints of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative, and aims to meet all Priority 2 checkpoints with as many as possible of the Priority 3 checkpoints. To facilitate this, the site is written in standards-compliant XHTML with CSS. Some stylesheets contain browser-specific features to provide some CSS3 effects, but the site will still display well on any standards-compliant browser on any platform.

Browser compatibility

To ensure broad browser compatibility, this site is tested on a number of current and obsolete browsers, including the Lynx text-only browser and a screen-reader emulator. It will function adequately on any web browser, although it is seen to best effect on a current standards-compliant browser. Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome give the best results, although Opera and Internet Explorer are also fine. The site has been tested on the following browsers:

  • Mozilla Firefox 3.5 on Windows 7
  • Apple Safari 4 on Windows 7
  • Google Chrome 3 on Windows 7
  • Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7
  • Opera 10 on Windows 7
  • Lynx on RedHat Fedora
  • Safari for iPod Touch and iPhone
  • Opera Mini
  • Nokia mobile browser
  • Mozilla Firefox 1.5 on Windows XP
  • Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP
  • Internet Explorer 2
  • NCSA Mosaic 1

There is a bug with Internet Explorer 6, where floated images are not displayed and are replaced with an empty white block. I am working on a solution for this, but some basic workarounds have not fixed this. In the meantime, I would recommend upgrading to a later version of Internet Explorer – both versions 7 and 8 are compatible with versions of Windows from XP service pack 2 onwards and can be downloaded free from Microsoft. Downloading Firefox, Safari, Opera or Google Chrome would be an even better idea, and they are all free.

Accessibility tips

Visitors with visual impairment needing larger text sizes are advised to zoom the whole page rather than enlarging the text to avoid breaking the navigation bar at the side. This can be done within Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer 8 (use CTRL and + together). Alternatively, the site can be navigated using the text-based links at the bottom of each page.

If the site design is causing browsing difficulty, an alternative stylesheet called “Rapper Online Basic” can be used in browsers supporting alternate stylesheets, and the site can also be fully navigated with CSS disabled if desired. To change stylesheet in Firefox, select “Page Style” in the ”View” menu and choose the relevant stylesheet or “No Style” to disable stylesheets. The same can be done in Internet Explorer 8 by selecting “Style” in the “Page” drop-down menu on the toolbar.

Accessibility notice

The webmaster and contributors to this site assert, and users of this site do so on the condition that they agree, that conformance to the majority of Priority 1 checkpoints constitutes “such steps as it is reasonable” to ensure access to the service in line with the section 21 of Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in the United Kingdom.