accessibility

We have used the following techniques to make this site accessible to as many people as possible.

Access Keys

Each page contains the following access keys:

* Access Key s - Skip Navigation.
* Access Key 0 - Home Page.
* Access Key 1 - bathroom styles.
* Access Key 2 - product range.
* Access Key 3 - why choose dolphin.
* Access Key 4 - special offers.
* Access Key 5 - contact dolphin.
* Access Key 6 - Dolphin Special Care website.
* Access Key 7 - help page.

To use an access key press ALT + the key (use the main keyboard not the numeric keypad which could have been taken over by your specialised software). In Internet Explorer this will put the focus on the link. Then press RETURN to activate the link. In Netscape there is no need to press RETURN. Most, but not all, browsers support access keys. Users of some screen reading software may find some of the access keys conflict with their software key combinations.
Navigation Aids

* For people who use a screen reader, all pages have a "skip" link at the top to go direct to page content and bypass the navigation menu.
* The navigation menu always offers links to the main sections and some sections will also offer a sub menu below the section link.
* All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. Heading 2 elements are used for page titles, Heading 3 elements are used for subtitles and so on.

Design

* Frames: We have not used frames which are separate sections of the window area that are made up from a number of different web pages. Web sites with frames can be difficult to navigate with a screen reader unless you actually know frames exist and which frames contain the information for which you are looking.
* Tables: We have not used layout tables which are frequently used on web sites as a method of setting out the page visually.
* Images: All images on the site provide alternative descriptive text. Because some browsers or screen readers cannot be relied upon to recognise alternative text, we have also given each image a title in an attempt to cover some of these inconsistencies.
* Colour: We do not employ colour coding of information.
* Multimedia: We have limited the use of video, animation and sound.
* Scripts, Applets and Plug-ins: The use of Javascript has been strictly limited. We do not use Applets which are programs that are executed from within another program or plug-ins that add features to standard browsers.

Personalisation

* Colours have been chosen to ensure the contrast between the background and the foreground is suitable for several forms of colour-blindness.
* Relative font-sizes have been used so that the visitor can change them using the browser's "text size" option.

Standards Compliance

There are many issues for web designers and developers to address when producing an "accessible" web site. What is accessible to one person may not be accessible to another and so web sites have to try to find an acceptable middle way. There are several different screen readers and many different browsers and even more versions of each.

All pages are valid under XHTML1.0 and CSS. The site has also been tested with Connect Outloud/JAWS screen reading software, Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 7.1, Firefox 1.0 and Opera 7.54.

To ensure your Internet and World Wide Web experience is as enriched as possible, we strongly recommend you keep your browser and screen reading software up to date.

We welcome your comments and suggestions about how to make this site more accessible.