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About Accessibility

Greater Shepparton City Council is committed to ensuring that this website is accessible to everyone. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of this site, please contact us, as we are continually striving to improve the experience for all visitors.

The Greater Shepparton website has been built to conform to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) guidelines for accessibility. A number of accessibility features have been implemented across the Greater Shepparton website to make the website more accessible to not only people with visual, motor or cognitive disabilities, but to everyone.

Navigation

An invisible "Skip navigation" link has been provided at the top of each page to enable users with screen readers to go directly to the content area of the page, bypassing the navigation. This link is hidden from regular viewers but can be seen with styles turned off or by screen readers.
A text-only site map provides links to all the main areas and sub-areas of the site in a more accessible format. The sitemap is located on the bottom of the page or in the skiplink for screen readers.
All navigation will still function without javascript. The javascript only enhances the experience for users with javascript turned on.

Fonts

Most fonts on the site use relative font sizing rather than fixed font sizing. Some users may find increasing the text size within their browser makes reading pages easier.

To change the text size:

In Internet Explorer, click the View menu, then select Text Size and then choose larger or largest (the default is medium). Alternatively, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the mouse wheel (if you have one).
In Firefox, click the View menu, then select Text Size and then choose the whether you would like to increase the size (increase) or decrease the size (decrease). Alternatively, hold down the Ctrl key and at the same time, push the - or + key.
You can also click the "Toggle font size" button at the top of each content page ( ) to make it easier to adjust font size for those users who cannot do it through their browser. (Unfortunately, this requires javascript.)

Links

Almost all links are text-based. If an image is used for any link, it will be placed directly next to a text-based version of the same link, or techniques are used to keep the text within the code so they are still text-friendly for screen readers, text-based browsers and for those who browse with styles off (this includes mobile devices which may not render cascading style sheets).
All link rollovers are high-contrast so they are easily distinguished from regular text and headlines that are not clickable.
Link content text is contextual when possible (eg. Instead of ‘more’ or ‘click here’, the link may read ‘more about council’ or ‘click here to read about council’) to make navigation easier for screen readers.

Images

A text description has been added to each meaningful image within <alt> and/or <title> tags. This will assist screen readers and users who browse the internet with images off.

Forms

All forms are built with accessibility in mind, including:

Use of the label tag. The label specifically associates a piece of text with a form field which benefits screen readers. Also, if text within a label is clicked, the associated form field is brought into focus which increases general usability.
Form Validation. If a form is submitted incorrectly, the error message returned informs the user of missing information clearly and logically, without requiring javascript.

Printing Options

Most content pages on our website are optimised for printing offline, and are specifically designed for hardcopy and legibility. The navigation menus and other design elements will be removed, the text will wrap to the page margins, and the font face is updated ready for printing. This will be supported in all browsers that accept print stylesheets and will aid those who prefer to read articles offline and/or cannot read them on a computer monitor. It may be necessary to enable the printing of background images in your print settings if you want to closely replicate the on-screen layout. Remember web graphics are generally poorly suited to printing.

Standards Compliance

Greater Shepparton City Council aims to meet a Conformance Level "Double-A" for accessibility. Full information and a conformance level checklist can be found on the W3C website:

Accessibility checklist:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html
Accessibility Guidelines (general):
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT

All code is validated by validator.w3.org according to relevant doctypes when launched to increase reliable rendering across all browsers, to enable faster downloads and for easier navigation for screen readers.
All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. Separation of structure (HTML), presentation (CSS) and behaviour (javascript) is practiced where possible.

While Greater Shepparton City Council does its best to support users with older browsers, the reality is that some of our online/electronic resources are enhanced by the use of modern standards-compliant browsers which have both javascript and cookies enabled, as well as the use of browser plugins such as Flash and Adobe Reader. Running modern, standards-compliant browsers allows the user to access resources, materials and the World Wide Web as it was originally intended. Where possible, Greater Shepparton City Council develops support for web browsers according to the Yahoo Graded Browser Support Matrix.

We are continually testing and modifying all of Greater Shepparton City Council's websites for accessibility but there may be some legacy pages and/or pages developed by third-parties that are not fully compliant with our accessibility standards.

Tools on the Web

Some tools online make it easier for people with disabilities to view and navigate web content. These include:

There are now several excellent browsers to choose from apart from Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and many of these alternate browsers are designed to run on older PCs or Macs. For more information on standards compliant browsers visit The Web Standards Project or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).