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Accessibility

Accessibility refers to how well a website might assist accessibility and usability, especially for people with disabilities.


Many resources provided by our researchers are provided to us in non-HTML format, or may not meet the accessibility guidelines in other ways. We do not always have the resources to convert these resources for accessibility.

Should you encounter a document that is not accessible to you, please contact the submitter or creator of the resource, or contact us and we'll help.


The Clearing House website tries to incorporate as many accessibility guidelines as possible including:


  • Check below for out loud reading of PDF documents

  • Our images have text alternates (ALT attributes) so that when you mouseover, text appears describing the image. This can be read by screen readers

  • Pages are organised to be fully functional, even with Javascript turned off

  • Our minimum text size for the main content is point size 10 with the easy to read verdana font throughout the site.

  • Users can zoom in on webpages using most browsers to increase the size of the page using View - Zoom menus

  • Page formatting has been achieved using CSS techniques that ensure that the semantic structure of the information is preserved no matter how many people update the site

  • We have made sure that there is sufficient contrast and colour differentiation between text and background, for readability

  • We publish key information in HTML except where there is a specific requirement for other formats e.g. PDF files might be used especially for downloadable research or other resources

  • Our page widths are no more than 800 pixels catering to the oldest monitors and about 20% of our users with older computer monitors
  • Flash is not used as it cannot be read by screen readers
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    You can make it easier

    If you are a researcher who sends us resources, consider altering your documents to meet accessibility guidelines so that the broadest range of people no matter what their ability can access your resource. The ultimate text based document is a .txt file - it's small, readable, completely searchable and fast to download.


    NEWS FLASH: Reading out loud for PDF documents

    The Read Out Loud feature on some versions of PDF Readers makes some PDF files more accessible to people who are unable to access a PDF with their regular screen reader, or those with an impairment such as dyslexia.

    To use the Read Out Loud feature, open the PDF document, select the View menu (Alt+V) then go down and click Read Out Loud or press A - (if it is not activated yet you will need to select Activate, and then start again - select the View menu (Alt+V) then click on Read Out Loud or press A).

    Then select Read This Page Only or press ‘O’ (shortcut Shift+Ctrl+V) alternatively select Read to End of Document or Press ‘E’ (shortcut Shift+Ctrl+B)

    You can also pause (Shift+Ctrl+C) and stop (Shift+Ctrl+E) the document once it has started to be read out.


    We still have some work to do to make our site even more accessible so if you have more ideas let us know!