Bus to School recognises that many different forms of disability affect access to the web & we have adopted a proactive approach to improving the services we offer.
Making a website accessible means adhering to established carefully developed standards to ensure all users can access the web effectively.
Aims
Our aim is to provide a website that meets the needs of our disabled users & offers accessible & inclusive website information & services. We aim to meet the legal requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) for the provision of services & we aim to adhere to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 AA standard.
We further aim to drive forward enhancements which will improve the customer experience beyond our required legal commitments & government guidelines. We seek to provide an excellent customer experience for our disabled users & to become an exemplar site for accessibility.
Approach
Our approach to accessibility is to make services easy to use & understand for all customers. This includes anyone who needs to or prefers to customise their computing devices so that they can access the Bus to School website effectively.
Our approach is to provide simple uncluttered web pages with clear, easy to follow content or systems to work with. We recognise that it is not just disabled people who are affected by accessibility &, our strategy, plans & vision also include people:
- surfing the web using mobile devices
- who block pop-ups & do not use JavaScript
- using systems with slow bandwidth connections
- using old browsers or old computers
- who don’t speak or understand English fluently
- who are not confident using computers & require easy to use systems
Core User Tasks
All users visiting the Bus to School site should be able to:
- transact with Bus to School using our online services
- use the search function to find the information they require
- find out how they can contact
- find how they can provide feedback to Bus to School
- customise Bus to School pages to meet their own needs & requirements
- find how to obtain information or access to services in
Customer Involvement
One of the guiding principles of the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act is that disabled people should be involved in the development & testing of services. We seek the views of disabled users on the quality of our website through feedback, consultation & research with disabled customer groups.
Bus to School involves, & will continue to involve, all appropriate stakeholders, including those with disabilities, in the development & testing of new services & informational content.
New Content, Services & Applications
Bus to School strives to ensure that all new website content, services & applications meet the requirements of the DDA & adhere to the W3C WCAG 1.0 AA accessibility standards. We are achieving this accessibility standard by:
- Performing pre & post publication checks against all html pages as part of the day to day publishing process
- Validating all new templates or revisions to templates against AA accessibility standards before being implemented to the live website. Including specific accessibility checks as part of the development checkpoints that Bus to School Online services must go through before publication to the website.
- By ensuring that new web content is clearly presented & written in a way that is easy to understand & follow.
Legacy content, services & applications
We are identifying & implementing accessibility improvements on a priority basis & we are improving the accessibility of legacy content, services & applications by:
- Regularly reviewing our online content, services & applications & where possible improving accessibility levels by adding accessibility features.
- Regularly testing our site for accessibility. Live content & services on the Bus to School website are tested as part of business as usual by Bus to School
- Co-ordinating accessibility improvements through an accessibility steering group that includes representatives from across the Bus to School website team
Contact & Feedback
Bus to School would welcome any comments & feedback regarding this Statement of Accessibility.
If you have any comments or have any suggestions of ways we can improve our services please feel free to post your comments through Online Feedback or by contacting Bus to School at info@bus2school.co.uk