Roads.org.uk has been built from the ground up to be accessible to as many people as possible. This page explains what special features exist for users of non-visual browsers, screenreaders and mobile devices.
Assistive technology
Our current website design is based on Bootstrap 5 which incorporates a range of accessibility features, with code designed to be friendly to users of assistive technology. Dynamic content and javascript use ARIA metadata to explain their functions to non-visual browsers.
Extensive use is made across the website of icons and symbols, some of which form buttons or links. These are expanded to text links for users of assistive technology.
Links
Links will always open in the same window or tab.
Abbreviations
Wherever possible, technical terms, abbreviations and acronyms are avoided to make the site as easy to read as possible. However, they do crop up occasionally, and will almost always be explained the first time they appear on a page. Explanations for many common road-related abbreviations are in the Dictionary.
Inaccessible features
While every effort has been made to permit all visitors to access Roads.org.uk, no matter how they view the internet, some parts of the site are rendered inaccessible by their content. They are as follows:
- The Motorway Database pages contain graphical exit lists which are rendered using a complex HTML table. In a non-visual browser this can be time-consuming and difficult to follow. All other useful content on these pages appears before the exit list table.
- Occasional use is made of Adobe PDF files as wrappers for series of images — such as, for example, the scanned pages of a booklet. We are progressively moving away from PDF files to present sequences of images and over time these will be removed.
In the past the site made limited use of Adobe Flash animations. Since Flash became unsupported these have been retired and were not replaced.
Feedback
I'm always interested in your ideas for improving our accessibility. If you have any comments, please let me know.
