About this site
Site construction
This site is built using valid XHTML and CSS; its design can only be seen properly in a browser that supports web standards. However, its content should be accessible to everyone.
Layout is controlled using a style sheet instead of tables, making the site faster, easier to maintain and more accessible. We believe that one day, most sites will be built this way.
Web accessibility
This site is now over two years old, and is in need of a bit of an accessibility overhaul. Known issues include:
- Text sizes are specified in pixels, preventing Windows Internet Explorer users from resizing the text. We'll be replacing the pixel units with % or ems shortly.
- The navigation twisties use JavaScript to open and close sections in the navigation menu. With JavaScript off, they do nothing and without CSS, they are not necessary because the sections are all visible anyway. We'll be changing the way the menu is built so that the twisty triangles are inserted dynamically using JavaScript as the page loads - this means that they will only appear for users who can use the functionality. The non-CSS view will still be weird if JavaScript is on, but hey, we're not magicians here...
- The layout CSS is all a bit of a kludge, resulting from many failed attempts in the original design process. We'll redo the layout with a bit less fuss and bother next time
- The HTML structure could be better. On the other hand, it could be worse. Maybe we'll clean up a few little things...
- The fact that the main navigation is right aligned could make problems for some users of screen magnifier software. We're going to do some research with screen magnifier users to find out their preferences for issues like this, as they are a somewhat poorly known group of users as things stand.
There are probably more.
If you have any questions or comments about the site, or if you have any problems using the site, please don't hesitate to let us know at feedback@zstudio.co.uk