LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW

‘Disability Matters‘, the publishers of the ‘Law and Benefit Review’ website, is only too aware that if information is on a website, it must be accessible to everyone regardless of disabilities and fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG AA and W3C standards and guidelines. We are trying to achieve the approved WCAG AA guidelines and complicity to all priority 1 and 2 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and have tried to include all essential aspects in the production this website such as usability, visual design, navigations aids, images, accessibility, eye tracking, designs and find ability. These are essential aspects for any website that should be included particularly when people are suffering from various forms of disability may be wish to view them.

Some of you may have had difficulty in trying to find us, this is due solely to the incompatibility of many computer web browsers systems to Microsoft. Microsoft appears to produce soft ware, much of which it not compatible to other makes of software and visa versa, so if you are not using Microsoft then problems may arise. Users should have no problem at all by using their web page address box - not search engine boxes - normally to be found at the top of the computer screen but in order to ease access to our website, may we suggest that you download free of charge the web-browser Mozilla Firefox 1.5. or any future update Commonly known as Firefox which can be found at www.firefox.org.uk. This web-browser will show our website in the form that it is presented to our webmaster with logos and the limited introduction of ‘colour’ onto our website.

Firefox 1.5 or any future update delivers easier navigation for everyone, including those who are visually or motor impaired. Firefox is the first browser to support DHTML accessibility, which, when enabled by Web authors, allows rich web applications to be read aloud. Users may navigate with keystrokes rather than mouse clicks, reducing the tabbing required to navigate documents such as spreadsheets. The Firefox 1.5 version [windows version] is also the first browser to meet US federal government requirements.

There may be a need to remind people that when ever attempting to find a website, any website, it is often advisable to insert the full web address into the address bar of their web browsers and not the search engine box. Our website address should for instance be entered as https://www.lawandbenefitreview.co.uk

Websites must also conform to certain laws and standards, but also conform to United Kingdom and European law and the two Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005. They must also have ethical web accessibility, contain reasonable business practice and provide business benefits.

Our website is being constantly checked to ensure that it complies with minimum EU basic levels of accessibility and complying with the codes, guidelines and standards of both the WCAG AA and W3C. This is the highest form of control now available in the world and we will be constantly monitoring the website to try to improve the presentation wherever possible. At the same time, we ask you to inform us of any problems that you may have in accessing our reading website because if we do not know about your particularly problem then we cannot fix it.

Our webmaster has assured us to the best of his ability, that this website should be available to the majority of disabled people so long as those disabled people have the appropriate software fitted to the computer they are using to permit them to generally access our website otherwise they may have difficulties in fully accessing this and other websites to their own full advantage.

Font sizes may be adjusted easily on your own computer by the using the text size or page zoom facility of your browser to change the size of the text such as clicking on ‘view’ and then ‘zoom’ or the equivalent button. A table will then been seen that can either enlarge or shrink the font size to enable all to read the pages clearly.

To assist those with difficulties in fully accessing this and any website, may we first suggest that you log on to www.rnib.org.uk or www.capability-scotland.org.uk where there are several links to other sites relating to accessibility of websites for disabled people generally. The BBC have also launched an ‘accessibility’ information website on www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility which provides access information to the web using Windows, Apple, Map and Linx systems. The website is aimed to help people suffering from sight, hearing and reading problems and also gives help and advice on keyboard and mouse operations. A further excellent example of ‘accessibility’ is shown in the website www.directenquiries.com. Go to the ’home page’ on page one and click on ‘website accessibility‘. This will in turn reveal an extensive range of assistance and help highlighting numerous computer systems and browsers. We at DISABILITY MATTERS award this website four stars for content.

Whilst every possible effort is been made to make our website fully accessible and complying to all codes, standards, guidelines and the many forms of disability as indicated above, it could be that certain disabilities, incapacities or impairments may have not been catered for in the software either being used by the website reader or our webmaster. In this unlikely event, please contact us immediately so that we can investigate your needs and we will ask our webmaster to take look at your requirements.

Alan de Derval et de Moisdon
Chairman of Disability Matters