The University of Oxford Shop

Accessibility

Website accessibility statement

The University of Oxford Shop website has been carefully designed very much with accessibility issues in mind. Every effort has been made to ensure that as many visitors as possible are able to access and use it, regardless of differing abilities or technologies used.

Testing

The University of Oxford Shop website has been thoroughly tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and we are confident that it meets at least the minimum requirements (Priority 1) as well as the majority of Priority 2 & 3.

In addition, compatibility of the site has been tested with the following popular browsers across both PC and Apple Macintosh platforms:

Internet Explorer for Windows (v 6.0)
Mozilla Firefox for Windows (v 1.5)
Mozilla Firefox for Macintosh (v 1.0)
Netscape for Windows (v 8.1)
Opera for Windows (v. 8.51)
Opera for Macintosh (v 7.54)
IBM Home Page Reader for Windows (v 3.02)
Safari for Macintosh (v 1.0)

Screen readers

The University of Oxford Shop website has been very carefully constructed and tuned to work with IBM Page Reader (v 3.02) and various elements have been added to help the visually impaired user as much as is possible during their visit.

For example, navigational elements (which can be skipped over) and main page content have been verbally indicated to help the screen reader using visitor identify where they are on a page.

All features have been tested practically with IBM Page Reader (v 3.02).

Navigating the site without a mouse

Mouseless visitors will find that they can navigate between pages by simply using the TAB key on their keyboard, links can be followed by hitting the ENTER key.

Entry fields in the various forms used on the site can also be 'tabbed' between. To submit a form, the mouseless visitor just needs to complete it and tab to the submit button at its foot, then hit ENTER.

More information about accessibility and forms used on the site is available later on this page.

Additionally, 'access keys' have been assigned (on all pages) to important sections of the site. These keys (supported by most modern browsers) provide quick access to important areas of the site.

More information specifically about access keys and how to use them follows.

Access keys

Many browsers now support the use of access keys on websites in order to 'jump' to important information quickly. This website has assigned access keys to a number of important pages (specific assignment as recommended by the UK Government).

To access any of these specific pages, visitors with Windows-based browsers (such as later versions of Internet Explorer for Windows) should be able to hit the relevant letter or number (as indicated below) on their keyboard whilst holding down their ALT key (with some browsers, this action may have to be followed by the ENTER key). Macintosh users should find that holding down the CONTROL key on their keyboards whilst pressing one of the access keys listed below will produce the same effect.

ALT or CONTROL + S - Skip to main content of page
ALT or CONTROL + 0 - Accessibility statement (this page)
ALT or CONTROL + 1 - Home page
ALT or CONTROL + 3 - Site map page
ALT or CONTROL + 5 - Frequently asked questions page
ALT or CONTROL + 8 - Terms and conditions page
ALT or CONTROL + 9 - Contact details page

Using the forms on this site

To make accessing and using the various forms on this site as easy as we can for as many visitors as we can, we have used both field focus and field labels. Visitors will also find that each field in the form can be 'tabbed' to (as can the submit button) negating the need for a mouse.

About field focus

Field focus highlights the entry fields (feature not available in Internet Explorer) with a contrasting border and background colour as they are tabbed or clicked into.

About field labels

Field labels are applied to each field name (e.g. 'Name:') allowing them to be simply clicked on (with a mouse) in order to access the entry field itself.

Scripts and plugins

Client-side scripts (such as Javascript or ActiveX) have been avoided as much as is possible, meaning that majority of this site can be navigated and used even with scripting capabilities disabled or unavailable in the browser (perhaps for security reasons).

Our use of Javascript

Although our use of Javascript is limited on the site, it has been employed in some areas where there has been no alternative.

For example, the 'tell-a-friend' facility offered against our products which allows visitors to easily email a link to one of our products to an interested third party relies on Javascript to function correctly.

Visitors should therefore be aware that, for functions such as this, the blocking or otherwise disabling of Javascript within the visitors' browser may affect enjoyment and full use of the features available on the site.

Our Use of ActiveX

Our use of ActiveX on this site is limited to just the panoramic images of the shop offered via the about us page.

Disabling the operation of ActiveX controls in your web browser will not effect your overall enjoyment of our site.

Plugins

Although plugins (such as Macromedia Flash) are not widely used on this site by any means, the Apple Quicktime plugin is required in order to view the panoramic images of the shop available via the about us page.

This does mean that those visitors without Quicktime would be required to download this additional software (a link to the appropriate download website is conveniently provided on the page) in order to view the images.

However, the presence of the Apple Quicktime plugin (or any other plugin for that matter) is certainly not essential to use and enjoy the vast majority of our website.

Pop-up or spawned browser windows

The University of Oxford Shop website does not 'spawn' additional browser windows randomly or without visitor interaction (such as in the case of unsolicited advertising 'pop-ups' seen on some sites).

'Pop up' windows have been used on this site in a limited capacity, but will only be displayed upon request by the browsing visitor. The presentation of information in this manner is always advised in advance.

Images

All images used on this site have either alt tags or title tags (sometimes both) employed in order to provide an appropriate description of the image (or function behind it, in the case of images used as links) for those visitors with graphics switched off in their browsers or for those visually impaired visitors using screen readers.

The exception to this rule is in the case of images used for layout purposes only, as these offer no useful data to the visitor.

Styles, text and layouts

The overall layout for pages on this site has been created in XHTML 1.0 Transitional and uses layers rather that tables to control positioning of elements.

Stylesheets

External stylesheets are employed to control page / text etc style, colours and positioning, but where stylesheets are disabled in the browser, pages are still readable and fully functioning.

Re-sizing textual content

For the visually impaired, text sizes on this site can be increased or decreased at will by simply holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard and scrolling backwards or forwards with the wheel on a wheel equipped mouse.

For users without such equipment, the same effect can be achieved by using the web browser's own text size adjustment features.

Printing

All pages are printer friendly and should print without issue on standard A4 paper. Even though the design on screen may appear too large to fit correctly in a portrait format, visitors have no need to change the page orientation in their print setup. All pages should print automatically in this orientation.

Please note that, in order to facilitate A4 portrait paper printing, print-outs will be predominantly textual. Navigation, background / design images and any other unnecessary elements will be removed (although body images will remain).