Accessibility

This page covers accessibility of the website. For accessible places to visit with a wheelchair, pushchair or for people with restricted mobility, please go to the accessibility pages of our Visiting section.

Website accessibility

The Peak District National Park Authority web site has been designed and developed to provide users with a more enjoyable interactive experience of the National Park and to find out more about the National Park Authority. The new site is designed to be inclusive and to provide access to all users regardless of technological or physical disability.

Not only is there a legal obligation for the content of the site to be made accessible to disabled users (Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Equalities Act 2010), but the Peak District National Park Authority also has a duty to the communities of the National Park and aspires to provide information based on people's needs rather than legal obligation.

Using this website

The website can be navigated using a keyboard and mouse, a keyboard on its own using the tab key, or a screen-reader such as JAWS. We are working on making the website easier to read on smart-phones and similar devices.

The website is structured with 5 main sections: Visiting - which tells you have to make the most of a visit to the Peak District;Learning About - which includes information about our Learning & Discovery team; Planning - which includes information about development control; Looking After - which gives more details about our teams and projects; Living In - which gives information mostly of interest to residents and businesses within the Park; and Shop and Donate which links to our online shop and donation facilities.

The website also includes a Search tool to allow you to quickly find information pages.

W3C Compliance

In order to ensure that the content of this site is accessible, the Peak District National Park Authority web site has been designed and constructed in accordance with the guidelines provided by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

The WAI guidelines state that in order for a web site to be considered accessible, it must at least conform to all Priority 1 checkpoints. All templates on this web site conform to not only all the Priority 1 checkpoints, but also to all Priority 2 checkpoints. This is known as 'Double A conformance' to the guidelines. We believe that, by aiming for Double A conformance wherever possible, we have built a web site that will be accessible by the vast majority of users, whatever their platform, connectivity and abilities.

All templates have been approved to priority 2 (AA) and all warnings identified have been manually checked for conformance.

We use a variety of tools to test the website including:

1. validator.w3.org which checks the HTML code on the website templates is valid
2. jigsaw.w3.org which checks the CSS code on the website's style-sheets is valid
3. cynthiasays.com which checks for WAI compliance
4. sitebeam.net which checks the site for a number of issues including spelling mistakes
5. Total Validator which can test multiple pages at once for technical issues
6. Firebug to monitor slow pages and other technical issues

If you notice something on the website which you think might contravene accessibility standards, please let us know by contacting Customer Services on 01629 816200 or emailing customer.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk

Visual design

Colours – We have tried to use colours throughout the web site that provide maximum contrast between foreground and background items and also various features on the page including headers, body text and hyper-links.

If you have difficulty reading text on this website due to the combination of black text on a white background, you can change your web browser settings to over-ride the colours. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the BBC Accessibility website.

Images – All interface graphics and images throughout the web site have been assigned an Alt-text attribute, which describes the contents or function of the item.

Hyperlinks – We have chosen the standard hyper-link blue colour for all active hyper-link text items, as this is the most accessible and recognisable standard for link items.

CSS – Style-sheets have been used for all visual items and text. This means that you can change the text size form within the browser by:

1. selecting 'View' from the menu and then 'Text size'
2. holding the 'Ctrl' key and pressing the '+' sign
3. holding the Ctrl key and using the wheel-mouse to zoom in and out

PDF Files

There are some documents in portable document format (PDF) for downloading on this web site. The Adobe Acrobat Reader can be freely downloaded from: http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep2.html (external site, opens new window)

Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat document: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility (external site, opens new window).

If you have difficulty viewing any of the PDF documents on our website, in the first instance you should ensure that you have the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your machine. If you still have problems after updating your reader, please contact customer.services@peakdistrict.gov.uk or assistance.

Word Files

There are some documents in Microsoft Word format for downloading on this web site. A word viewer can be freely downloaded from: Microsoft Download centre (external site, opens new window).

CSV Files

What is a CSV file?

CSV (Comma-Separated-Value) is a common file type used to import data from one software application to another, with commas separating the values in each field.

How do I view a CSV file?

This file format allows for data to be easily retrieved into a variety of applications, they are best viewed within one that will allow the easy manipulation of data that is in displayed in columns. Common examples of such applications are those that are used to create spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc.

To open the CSV file in Excel:

1. Open Microsoft Excel and click on the 'Open' icon or go to 'File->Open...'.
2. In the window that pops open, click on the drop-down menu labelled 'Files of type:' and select 'Text Files'.
3. Navigate to your csv file, select your file and click 'Open'.

If you don't have access a suitable application, you can also view the data in either an ASCII text-editor or a word-processor. However, since neither of these two application types has the facility to easily format the width of the data columns, quite a bit of manual reformatting may be required to view properly.

You may be able to view the file in your browser, or you may want to download the file by 'right-clicking' on the link and save the file to your computer.