Standard

We are pleased to have achieved the W3C 2.1 double A level of website accessibility. This is a widely recognised standard, and in the case of public sector bodies it is the legal minimum required level of accessibility to achieve. It is a good start for us to have achieved this standard, but it’s not the end of our journey to even wider accessibility.

Limitations

The level of accessibility is a reflection of the budget, time and resources BTO, as a charity, has available. There are also an almost infinite number of devices and browsers and people with differing needs to try and accommodate. Naturally, this means that certain elements of the website may not be always or completely accessible to every single person who visits the website. With more resources however, we are sure we could further improve our level of accessibility.

In a practical sense, this means:

• We've used a platform that was built with accessibility in mind from the start. It was not bolted on afterwards.
• We’ve used a sans serif font. These typically present fewer issues for readers generally speaking, but especially for people with dyslexia and colour blindness.
• We’ve referenced the dyslexia friendly style guide and tested our font colours to ensure they offer sufficient contrast and, in almost all cases, meet the triple A standard, but where they can't, they still meet the double A standard.
• We’ve provided a transcript for videos, where possible, so that people who cannot watch the video are still able to understand what it’s about.
• We’ve labelled images where they need to be labelled with ALT text to help people using screen readers understand their content.
• We’ve used a scalable, mobile-friendly layout so that the content reorganises itself quickly and easily when it’s being viewed on a mobile device.
• We’ve used clear, action-oriented navigation labels and menu design that includes a “focus” state: a dotted line will appear around the item being selected when someone is using a keyboard Tab button to navigate for instance.
• We have used high contrast colours for text and other areas of the website to minimise legibility issues.

Feedback and reporting issues

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact: webmaster@bto.org or call ​the British Trust for Ornithology on 01842 750050 and ask for the Website Manager.