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 3 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 to other websites will always open in the same window.
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 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.
- The article on Pedestrian Crossings uses Adobe Flash animations to demonstrate signal sequencing on a number of historic pedestrian crossings. These are only suitable for users of visual browsers, but are not necessary to understand the article.
- The archive of old and pages in the About section contains pages written many years ago that would not pass accessibility standards these days.
- Occasional use is made of Adobe PDF files as wrappers for series of images — such as, for example, the scanned pages of a booklet. No PDF file on this site will contain anything suitable for non-visual browsers.
Feedback
I'm always interested in your ideas for improving our accessibility. If you have any comments, please let me know.