Site Accessibility

Standards compliance

All web pages produced for the Waterside Lodge website are written to the XHTML 1.0 Strict standard, use Cascading Style Sheets for presentation and aim to meet the "AA" conformance level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This means that the Waterside Lodge website can be viewed in all modern browsers, regardless of platform or device.

Some older browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape 4) do not comply with these web standards. A minority of our visitors still use these browsers and, as a result, will not experience the site as we have intended. They will be able to read the pages and navigate the site, but the site will look basic in comparison.

Access keys

Most web browsers support shortcuts called access keys that you can use to jump to specific areas of the site. If your browser supports them, press ALT + key (Windows) or CTRL + key (Macintosh) and then (in the case of links) Enter to use.

We follow the standard access keys as defined by the UK Government:

• 1 - Link to homepage
• 0 - Link to accessibility statement

Other Features

• Each page contains a 'Skip to Menu' link which will take the user to the first item in the main navigation. The 'Skip to Menu' option is the first tabindex on each page.
• Where links in images are used to take the user to a new page with a larger version of the image on it, then the new page does not open a new window but opens in the current one. A text 'Back' button is provided as an alternative to get back to the main site. An extra back button is also available in the top right of the screen and will select with one 'Tab'.
• The links listed on the Links Page do, however, open in new windows and as a result this page does not conform to WAI-AA Standards.

This site has been validated using the 'Total Validator' tool and passed as having:

• Valid Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) 1.0 Strict
• Valid Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Web Accessibility Initiative - AA standard (WAI - AA)