Accessibility

DCH is committed to ensuring that the work it produces is accessible to as many members of the user community as possible. This statement outlines our approach to standards compliance, as well as a statement about the use of Adobe Flash on marketing websites.

Where possible, the following accessibility features are incorporated into websites:

There is a text equivalent for every non-text element
Documents are organised so that they can be read without Style Sheets
When scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off all pages are still useable
Relative units are used in fonts so that users can control the text size
No pop-up or new windows are used without informing the user
Navigation mechanisms are used in a consistent manner
All event-handlers are device independent

Access Keys

Some browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press the 'alt' key and the access key; on Macintosh, you can press then 'ctrl' key and the access key.

Accessibility Validation

Client websites produced by DCH use CSS, XHTML 1.0 Transitional and conform with Conformance Level "Double-A" of the WCAG (Priorities 1 and 2), verified by Bobby AA certification.

Bobby is an independent code checker that is used to check accessibility in accordance with the W3C's Web Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. Each individual page of the site has been tested and passed.

Accessibility Standards

Client websites produced by DCH support XHTML 1.0 Transitional [Extensible HyperText Markup Language version 1.0 Transitional DTD]. This is indicated inside the <!doctype> tags on all pages:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> The pages have been tested against the standards for Transitional HTML given by World Wide Web Consortium.
All pages produced on behalf of Clients by DCH feature CSS [Cascading Style Sheets]. Some browsers do not support all features in CSS and as a consequence you might experience irregularities in the design.
Issues have been known to occur using these browsers:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x
- Netscape Navigator 4.x
- Opera 3.X
- Any older versions of the above mentioned
All pages produced by DCH have been tested against the standards given by World Wide Web Consortium. Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x users are deliberately excluded from some features due to the poor support for Cascading Style Sheets. Recent Netscape versions (6, 7, 8) have increased support for CSS.
This site has been evaluated on the basis of Priority 1 and 2 items in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
This site indicates a claim of conformance by the page author or content provider to conformance level Double-A of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, including all Priority 1 and Priority 2 checkpoints defined in the Guidelines. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Conformance to these Guidelines will help make the Web more accessible to users with disabilities and will benefit all users.

Test Coverage

DCH tests websites against the following web browsers and platforms:

PC

Internet Explorer (PC) 5.5, 6 SP2, 7
Firefox 1.0, 2.0
Netscape Navigator 7, 8
Opera 8.01, 9.02

Mac

Safari 1.2
Firefox 1.0, 2.x
Camino
Mozilla
Opera 8.01, 9.02

Use of Adobe Flash

As a fully integrated marketing agency, DCH and it's clients face a constant compromise between delivering highly accessible websites, and making highly engaging content with impact that captures the attention of the user community.

Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) provides a mechanism for creating high impact websites, and is frequently used. When considering the use of Flash, DCH considers the competitive environment for each individual client.

Whenever a website uses Macromedia Flash, DCH shall pay suitable consideration to members of the user community by providing alternative content.

DCH welcomes questions regarding this accessibility statement by emailing us at accessibility@dch.co.uk.