Help using this website

Down Syndrome Victoria Accessibility Statement

Introduction Down Syndrome Victoria is committed to improving the accessibility of its website for users with disabilities.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released a set of guidelines called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines presently comprise the international standard for web accessibility. There are three levels of conformance (A, AA and AAA). Down Syndrome Victoria recognises the importance of providing web accessible content to all users of our website and it is our aim is to meet at minimum conformance level A for all Down Syndrome Victoria content published on our site. In many areas, our website already conforms to a higher accessibility standard.

This page is intended to provide tips and useful information to assist users with disabilities to access Down Syndrome Victoria's website. We have also included information about the standards we expect of third parties supplying services to the Down Syndrome Victoria website, how to provide Down Syndrome Victoria with feedback and a complaints handling process.

Contact us

We invite you to provide feedback of your experience with our sites. We take all feedback into consideration and will endeavour to respond to you within a timely manner. Please contact:

Down Syndrome Victoria
219 Napier Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Email: info@dsav.asn.au

How to use our accessibility features

Down Syndrome Victoria has implemented a range of accessibility features and will continue to into the future as quickly as our resources will allow.

Listing headings and links

In most of our pages the most important content is at the beginning of the page and we structured all content with headings and meaningful HTML code. This allows you to create lists of headings or links to skim the page if you use a screen reader, but it also helps assistive devices to understand and process the content.

Using the keyboard

When you press the Tab key after a page has loaded we provide skip links to the main navigation and content area. Most elements which are clickable are outlined when you access them using the Tab key.

We do not define any access keys as assistive devices already define many key combinations. We want to avoid that access keys interfere with such key combinations.

Switching to high contrast

Most pages provide a 'High contrast' link which allows you to view the page on a dark background and light typeface. This is useful if you need to be close to the screen to view content. The link is in the header menu at the far right, at the top of the page.

Explaining content

We are in the process of attaching descriptions to each image, which will briefly describe it if you use a screen reader or have turned off images.

When your screen reader comes across content which is visually grouped together, or content which uses icons or other images, we try to insert additional text available to screen readers to explain the content or images.

Interactive components

Some components of our pages are interactive, for example tabs or content that changes automatically. We attempt to provide you with a pause or stop control for such content to view it in your own time.

If interactive content is partly hidden, as with tabs or popup elements, all content will be shown if you disable interactivity, for example by turning off Javascript.

Enlarging the text

You can enlarge the text on the page by clicking the "A" buttons which are located in the header menu of most pages in the top far right. This increases the text size by editing CSS properties. However if you would like to enlarge everything on the page including graphics and layouts, see instructions on how to zoom in and out below.

Enlarging the page

You can enlarge the page using your browser. On PCs press the 'CTRL' and '+' keys together to zoom into the page, on a Mac press the command key and '+'. Press 'CTRL' (or command key on the Mac) and '–' to zoom out.

Known barriers

Not every page on our website will have the accessibility features we strive to offer. This is because we have limited resources and it can take a great deal of time to improve our entire website.

If you find a page or section inaccessible do not hesitate to contact us so we can help you and review those pages.

Please remember that our efforts to provide a fully accessible website need to be balanced against the impact that this has on Down Syndrome Victoria's operations and the nature of the service being offered. We are constantly working to review our website and, wherever practical, will improve the accessibility of our sites.

Complaints

If you are having trouble accessing a particular page within the Down Syndrome Victoria website or you would like to lodge a complaint, please contact:

Down Syndrome Victoria
219 Napier Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Email: info@dsav.asn.au

When lodging a complaint, the Accessibility Team would be grateful if you could be specific about the nature of your complaint, including the date and the location of the page you are having trouble accessing.

We take your feedback seriously and will promptly investigate and respond to all genuine complaints.

Currency

This policy is current as at January 2013.