Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) Website Accessibility Statement
Introduction
The Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD) is striving to make the web content of its hosted sites accessible to everyone.
In February 2008 we completed a redesign of this hosted website to address outstanding accessibility issues and introduce new functionality.
Key elements in this process were:
- Meeting the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Find out more about WCAG
- Using Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to ensure the website meets the emerging "web standards". Find out more about CRD and Web Standards
- Increasing the use of Plain English and introducing new content to explain technical subjects and issues. Find out more about our content improvements
- Delivering content more effectively to our diverse stakeholders. Find out more about our content delivery improvements
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an independent organisation that advises on the development and deployment of non-proprietary standards for the World Wide Web. One of their major areas of work is Accessibility.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a key element in their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). They are a set of guidelines and techniques which advise content developers on the best use of Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) and other web technologies.
The guidelines are divided into priority levels, 1 to 3, with Priority 1 being the highest. If you are satisfied you meet these priorities you can display a compliance level. The compliance levels are A (for Priority 1) through to AAA (for Priority 3). This website currently meets all relevant Priority 3 requirements and because of this we are able to display the WAI Compliance Triple-A icon on our home page:
As this website evolves, the guidelines are progressed, and older browsers are phased-out we will continue to make progress in this area.
The Accessibility features that have a direct effect on your use of the website are covered in our Website User Guide: Accessibility Features.
Web Standards
One of the cornerstone principles underlying web accessibility is Web Standards.
Web Standards broadly means producing websites that adhere to strict rules about how they are coded. The codes are what tell your browser how to display the information it receives, where hyperlinks should go, and so on. Although all web pages must use HTML codes to work, historically browsers have been less than fussy about how well-formed this HTML is. This has led to a lack of continuity in web coding, which again prejudices non-standard browsers and assistive technologies.
These web pages now validate against XHTML, a new, stricter version of HTML. You will see the W3C logo on the home page showing this:
We also use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) extensively. CSS is a form of coding that separates presentation from the core HTML content. All our CSS is validated. Again you will see the W3C logo on the home page showing this:
With the current browser market it is difficult to use CSS to its full potential, but as older browsers are phased-out we will soon be fully CSS-based, allowing the user to dictate how they view the website.
And as the web becomes a more 'standardised' place it will be easier for intelligent browsers and assistive technologies to change and re-deliver web content in the most appropriate manner for the user.
We would advise everyone to download the latest version of their chosen browser to ensure they get the maximum benefit from web standards and this website. It may also help to improve the security of your computer.
Content Improvements
Much of our web content is unavoidably technical because of the nature of our work. However we've put a lot of effort into making the technical content as Plain English as possible.
We've also introduced new content to help our less technical users get the information they need, including a new friendlier Home Page.