Accessibility

Accessibility compliance

The City of Cockburn is committed to being an accessible and inclusive City. We strive to ensure that information published on the City’s website pages are accessible to all users including older people as well as people with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments, and that the technology we use does not interfere or deny any user from accessing this information.

This website has been designed in accordance with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) internationally recognised Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines. The WAI is a set of guidelines for producing usable and accessible websites. Detailed information can be found on the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) website.

The City is responsible for the accessibility features of this website, as well as the content on its own pages. However the responsibility for the accessibility of the content on the community group pages lies with the relevant community group.

If you experience any accessibility problems with our website or with any of the information or documents contained within it please contact us for further information.

Accessibility features

To help you use our website, the following features are either provided or supported:

Readability

We make every effort to ensure this website is easy to read using 'plain English' wherever possible, while ensuring the website's design is not an obstacle to its usability or readability. Visually, we take care not to use all capitalised, small cap, or italicised text. Our text is styled only with sans serif font family, and with no kerning. The layout justification on our text headings and paragraphs are either left justified or centred, and never block or full justified across the page.

Skip to content

A 'skip to content' link appears at the top of every page, in the header area. Selecting the 'skip to content' link will take you to the page's main content area.

Increasing and decreasing text size

To scale the font size, use your browsers resizing function. The latest version of several web browsers allow users to easily increase the font size for better readability. Hold down the Ctrl key (Command key on a Macintosh) and press the + (plus) key. You can also decrease the font size by holding down the Ctrl or Command key and pressing the - (minus) key. Additionally, the Ctrl key (Command key on a Macintosh) and scroll the mouse centre wheel forward or backward, increases or decreases the font size. Both of these methods also work on PDF pages as well.

Also, you may find instructions on the Web Accessibility Initiative site to be helpful. If you are still unsuccessful, you might consider upgrading to the latest version of your browser.

Images

We ensure that titles, text, and alternative (alt) text is given for images and pictures on this website to provide screen readers users access to the information or what it conveys.

CSS

Style sheets are used to format page content on this site are designed using cascading style sheets (CSS). This allows accessibility or keyboard only users to disable the formatting provided and apply their own formatting, if they choose. Style sheets are disabled within an Internet browser's settings or preferences options.
Keyboard navigation for links and form elements.

In most browsers, you can use the 'Tab' key to move between links without having to use the mouse. When you are on a link you wish to visit, pressing 'Enter' will take you to the linked page.

If you are in a form, you can also use the 'Tab' key to move between form elements (such as text boxes and radio buttons). Where there are options, for example in a drop-down menu, you can use the arrow keys to select your desired option. When you want to submit or cancel a form, tab through to the relevant button and press the 'Enter' key.

Access keys

The following keyboard shortcuts are available from every page. The special key mentioned is usually the 'Alt' key or the 'Ctrl' key but depends on which browser you use as well as your computer's operating system. Instructions are listed for the most popular web browsers but other browsers may provide similar functionality.

Special key + C = takes user to the main content area
Special key + S = takes user to the search area (top right side of the page)

Refer to your preferred browsers user guide for instruction on how to use access keys.

Usability testing

We are committed to making our site as user-friendly as possible. Extensive testing has been conducted on this site with key community groups and stakeholders. This feedback has been integrated into the design, navigation and content of our site. We will continue to develop, evaluate and improve the usability of our site to ensure our users needs are being met.

Assistive technologies

If you use assistive software such as Job Access With Speech (JAWS) or NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA), you can use its features to quickly present you with link lists, headings, or to shift the focus directly to tables and lists in a page.

Navigation using a screen reader

We have endeavoured to maximise the ability for users with vision impairments to use a screen reader with this website. Visitors using recent versions of screen readers can navigate using the following keystrokes:

Headings

'H' to navigate forwards through the headings
'Shift' + 'H' to navigate backwards through the headings
'1' to navigate to the next level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the next heading on this level)
'Shift' + '1' to navigate to the previous level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the previous heading on this level)
'Insert' + 'F6' to provide a list of all headings

Landmarks

Using JAWS® Versions 10-12, you can use the keyboard navigation in virtual mode by:

Next landmark: ';' (semicolon)
Previous landmark: 'Shift' + ';' (semicolon)
List of landmarks: 'Ctrl' + 'Insert' + ';' (semicolon)

Using NVDA 2011.2 the landmark keyboard combination in virtual buffer mode is:

Next landmark: 'D'
Previous landmark: 'Shift' + 'D'
List landmarks (and list/headings): NVDA + 'F7'

VoiceOver users can navigate a page via landmarks by choosing 'landmarks' in the 'web rotor', then finger flicking up or down will move to the next or previous landmark.

Disclaimer

Third party applications

The City is not responsible for third party applications or how they access the information on the www.cockburncommunitygroups.com.au website, such as but not limited to, JAWS, NVDA, and screen readers, or other screen-reading software or devices.

YouTube

The City of Cockburn is committed to ensuring all video content is accessible and strives to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 2.0 to Level AA wherever possible. However as our videos appear on the website using YouTube, a third-party product, technical issues may occur including empty links and headings that are either empty or nonsensical. The following information from the YouTube Help function about accessibility provisions may be helpful: Using YouTube with a screen reader, Turning captions on and off, and Changing caption font and format.

Google Maps

The City of Cockburn allows for each group to show via a Google Map integration on where they hold their meetings. Currently there is no provision for an accessible format to accompany this information. The City of Cockburn has planned to add in a working alternative to alleviate this problem in the next stage of redevelopment on this site.

Linking to other websites platforms, example: Wordpress

In some cases a community group has opted to use another website platform to keep most of their information, which we have linked off to from this website. As these websites are using a different platform other than cockburncommunitygroup.com.au website framework, we are not able to enforce the WCAG 2.0 to Level AA standards in to the build of these separate sites.