Accessibility

We recognise there is a variety of devices that the community choose to connect with us. These include personal computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.  Our website is designed to respond to the type of device being used to view and interact with our website to then display in the most effective way.

Our website has been designed to help you access all the information you need to know quickly and easily.

Find your way around the website using:

• the search tool at the top of every page;
• the navigation menu across the top of every page; and
• breadcrumb navigation allows browsers to keep track of their location within the website hierarchy. Breadcrumbs are displayed on the top of each web page in desktop and tablet mode.

We make every effort to ensure this website is easy to read using 'plain English' wherever possible. Visually, we take care not to use all capitalised, small cap, or italicised text. Our text is styled only with sans serif font family, and with no kerning. The layout justification on our text headings and paragraphs are either left justified or centred, and never block or full justified across the page.

This website allows full tab-based navigation:

• When you hold down on the menu item or hyperlink, press enter to activate
• Hold down the shift and tab keys to reverse the tab cycle
• At the top of each page there are options to skip to various areas of the page. This is to assist users of screen readers and those who are zooming in to view the website.

A 'skip to content' link appears at the top of every page, in the header area. Selecting the 'skip to content' link will take you to the page's main content area.

To scale the font size, use your browser's resizing function. The latest version of several web browsers allow users to easily increase the font size for better readability.

• Increase font size: Hold down the Ctrl key (Command key on a Macintosh) and press the + (plus) key.
• Decrease the font size: Hold down the Ctrl or Command key and pressing the - (minus) key.  

Additionally, the Ctrl key (Command key on a Macintosh) and scroll the mouse centre wheel forward or backward, increases or decreases the font size. Both of these methods also work on PDF pages as well.

Also, you may find instructions on the Web Accessibility Initiative site to be helpful. If you are still unsuccessful, you might consider upgrading to the latest version of your browser.

We ensure that titles, text, and alternative (alt) text is given for images and pictures on this website to provide screen readers users access to the information or what it conveys.

We are is committed to ensuring that all video content is accessible and aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to level AA wherever possible.

The City ensures that all videos uploaded to YouTube include captions and transcripts are available if required. However, as YouTube is a third-party product, technical issues may occur that are out of our control, such as links and headings that are either empty or nonsensical.

• How to use YouTube with a screen readeropens in a new window
• How to turn captions on and offopens in a new window
• Changing caption font and size.opens in a new window

Wherever possible, hyperlinks contain descriptions of information found in the link’s destination. All internal links will open in the same window to improve usability for those with vision impairment. However, documents with external links will open in a new tab.

Cascading style sheets (CSS) are used to format page content on this site. This allows keyboard-only users to disable the formatting provided and apply their own formatting. Style sheets are disabled within an internet browser's settings or preference options.

In most browsers, you can use the 'Tab' key to move between links without having to use the mouse. When you are on a link you wish to visit, pressing 'Enter' will take you to the linked page.

If you are in a form, you can also use the 'Tab' key to move between form elements (such as text boxes and radio buttons). Where there are options, for example in a drop-down menu, you can use the arrow keys to select your desired option. When you want to submit or cancel a form, tab through to the relevant button and press the 'Enter' key.

ReadSpeaker

The pages on this website have the ReadSpeaker text-to-speech (TTS) screen reader enabled. This TTS technology is helpful especially to visually impaired users. It has a unique feature of being able to download an mp3 audio of the web page.  Its attributes such as voice, speed, loudness, pause, stop, and start is fully controllable. 

Simply click the Listen button to listen to the content of a web page:

An audio player appears and webReader starts reading the text of the web page out loud. You can expand the menu to view more options, including help.

In the player, you can:

• pause/restart the reading
• stop the reading
• use the skip buttons to rewind or forward the audio
• adjust the volume
• adjust the speed
• close the player

Other screen readers

For those with vision impairments, we have endeavoured to maximise the ability to use a screen reader with this website. Visitors using recent versions of screen readers can navigate using the following keystrokes:

Headings

• H to navigate forwards through the headings
• Shift + H to navigate backwards through the headings
• 1 to navigate to the next level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the next heading on this level)
• Shift + 1 to navigate to the previous level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the previous heading on this level)
• Insert + F6 to provide a list of all headings.

Links 

Press:

• Tab key to proceed through the links or shift + tab to cycle backwards through the links
• Insert + F7 to provide a list of all links.

Landmarks

Using JAWS® Versions 10-12, you can use the keyboard navigation in virtual mode:

• ; (semicolon) for next landmark
• Shift + ; (semicolon) for previous landmark
• Ctrl + insert + ; (semicolon) for a list of landmarks

Using NVDA 2011.2 the landmark keyboard combination in virtual buffer mode:

• D for next landmark
• Shift + D for previous landmark.

Using NVDA + F7VoiceOver you can navigate a page via landmarks by:

• Choosing landmarks in the web rotor, then finger flicking up or down to move to the next or previous landmark.