Disability and Accessibility
At Firstsite we believe that art should be enjoyed by everyone, and so our aim is to provide all visitors to our website with an accessible experience. Lots of people with visual, hearing and mobility impairments use our website and our aim has been to create a website that is as accessible and easy to use as possible, as well as being viewable in the widest possible range of web-browsing technology. Below are further details on how we’ve tried to make this website as accessible as possible.
For information about accessibility in our building please visit our Access and Facilities page
Accessibe plug in
We use the Accessibe plug-in to complement and improve the accessibility of our website. To use this function please select the blue circle with white text “Aa” inside – this should appear at the bottom left of each page. If you have any feedback on this plug in please email Rachel Skillen, Head of Audience and Communications at [email protected]
Standards compliance
1. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.1, as determined by the W3C Markup Validation Service. This is important to ensure that the website has a consistent appearance and functionality across all modern web browsers.
2. All pages on this site use valid Cascading Stylesheets (CSS), as determined by the W3C CSS Validation Service. This is important to ensure that the website has a consistent appearance across all modern web browsers.
Keyboard accessibility
Users who have difficulties using their mouse may find it easier to navigate the web using their keyboard. We’ve worked hard to ensure this functionality is accessible from the keyboard.
Responsive design
Our website has been designed to be responsive, so that it works equally well on computers, phones, and tablets. This also allows the site to scale easily as you zoom in, making it more usable.
High contrast colours
We’ve ensured our core colour palette achieves good colour contrast when used in conjunction with text-based content.
Alt text on images
We’ve worked hard to ensure that images on the website have descriptive alt text to ensure blind or partially-sighted users can still interpret the content.
Use of white space and large font sizes
Our website has a large, open feel with large font sizes to ensure content is easy to read and digest.
Consistent navigation structure
We’ve ensured our navigation system is simple, easy to use and consistent in its presentation so that it’s easy to tell where you are and how to move around the site.
We’ve worked hard to achieve a high level of accessibility, but we’re aware that websites change over time and evolve as user behaviours change. Achieving accessibility is not an automated process and is often down to subjective manual review. We believe that our website achieves a high level of accessibility, but if you are a user with a disability and you encounter any problems when using our website or have suggestions on how we could improve accessibility, we would welcome your feedback. Please email Rachel Skillen, Head of Audience and Communications at [email protected] or call 01206 713700.
