Accessibility
Introduction
Home Retail Group recognise the importance of providing a website
that is inclusive and available for all user groups. This page explains:
- our approach to making this website accessible, including what
we have done and will do in the future;
- the facilities that we have provided for different disability
groups;
- guidance on how to use particular features;
- what to do if you have any questions or feedback for us.
Approach
The Home Retail Group website is being developed to support Internet
users who have disabilities. We believe the web pages on the site
are in line with RNIB's 'See it Right' accessibility criteria, and
meet all of the priority 1 and level 2 criteria of W3C's Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines. Any new information added to the site
will be compliant with RNIB's 'See it Right' accessibility criteria.
The more recent PDF documents used in this website have been made
in a form in which they are accessible to screen readers and voice
browsers. Some of the older documents are not in this format. However,
Adobe has a service which enables PDF files to be converted into
HTML or text files. You can access this service from the accessibility
section of the Adobe website.
Select the following links to access specific details for:
Screen reader/voice browser/screen magnifier
users
Our navigation mechanisms are accessible by screen readers and
voice browsers. In addition, skip links allow the user to by-pass
the navigation to the main content and also go directly to the site
tools.
Text equivalents of all images have been provided and the relevant
page and table header tags inserted.
Alternative mechanisms have been provided where JavaScript is used
within the site.
Partially sighted users – changing the font
size
We have provided the facility to change the font size of the text
used on our web pages. If you are using Internet Explorer, select
'View' from the menu bar, then 'Text Size' and select from 'Smallest'
to 'Largest'. In Netscape, select 'View' from the menu bar, then
'Text Size' and select from 'Smaller', 'Larger', % values or 'Other'.
Colour-blind users
We have checked the site font and background colour combinations
for the different colour-blindness conditions and ensured that items
are not referenced by colour alone.
Should you wish to change the colour of text and background by
introducing your own style sheet, please follow the instructions
in changing the style sheet.
Keyboard-only users
The web pages on the site have been tested for use in keyboard-only
operation. When using the forms or controls for the tools, the keys
to use are as follows:
- To select from drop down boxes, use up and down arrow keys
- To select/unselect a check box, use the space bar
To move forward between links, use the tab key
To move back between links, use the Shift + tab keys
- To initiate an action button, use the Enter key when the action
button is selected.
Changing the style sheet
Users may import their own style sheet into the website. In Internet
Explorer, select Tools, then Internet Options and then Accessibility.
Next select any or all of three checkboxes to ignore colours, font
styles or font sizes. In the same window, you can change the style
sheet by selecting the checkbox that says 'Format document using
my style sheet', then simply browse to your preferred style sheet
and select OK. In Netscape, select Edit, then Preferences and then
Appearance. You will then be given a choice of colours and fonts.
Standards compliance
We have aimed to conform to Level AA compliance as specified by
the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
As a part of the functionality of our search engine we currently
employ a proprietary tag in order to provide more useful search
results; while this is rightly flagged as non-compliant XHTML, its
use greatly increases usability of the search engine and should
be the only compromise to XHTML validation on the site.
Questions and feedback
email: email address
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