About Us

It's important for us that as many people as possible can benefit from the services on our website. This is why we have made significant changes recently to improve the accessibility of this site.

Accesskeys

In order to enable you to use the website without the use of a mouse, the main navigation items (Mortgages, Savings, Loans, Credit Cards, Insurance, Partnerships and About Us) have been assigned accesskeys.

If you are using Microsoft Windows, you activate the accesskey by pressing 'ALT' and the letter (eg. 'M'), and then return on your keyboard.

We have also created some hidden shortcut keys for commonly used areas of the site.

The full list of accesskeys is as follows:

	Accesskey		Desination Page
	M		Mortgages
	S		Savings
	L		Loans
	C		Credit Cards
	I		Insurance
	P		Partnerships
	R		Membership
	B		About Us
	0		Accessibility
	1		Home
	3		Site Map
	7		Complaints
	9		Contact Us

		Remember - to use the accesskey in Microsoft Windows, press the 'ALT' key, plus the number or letter indicated above, and then press the return key on your keyboard

Website Enquiries

If you are experiencing any problems with the accessibility of this website please tell us. We're always looking for ways to improve the user experience and value your thoughts.

In addition to the introduction of accesskeys, we have also made a number of other changes.

These changes have been outlined below for your information.

HTML

Web pages are created using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The W3C defines the standards that should be followed when writing HTML to ensure that internet pages are displayed correctly across different computers, including accessibility software, such as screen readers for the partially sighted. We have coded this website to 'HTML 4.01 Transitional' rules.

The W3C offers a HTML validation service, to enable you to see if website providers have taken the care to create correctly coded web pages. You can check the validity of this page by clicking on the logo below.

Stylesheets

This website has been created using cascading style sheets (CSS), which follow the principle of separating content from presentation. The CSS files contain instructions for the page, such as the size of the fonts, the background colour, etc. Internet browsers can be configured to ignore CSS. If you are having difficulty reading the webpages because of the colours, fonts, etc, you can disable the CSS. The page will retain all of the information, without the style formatting.

Images

The practice of using images for text titles (eg. an image displaying the word ‘Mortgages’) is not recommended for an accessible website. We have changed all of our titles so that they are no longer images. This not only makes the pages more accessible, but also reduces the number of images that need to be downloaded, and therefore reduces the amount of time it takes to view a page.

All photographs and graphics on the website have been given relevant alternative text. This is a description of the image, which screen reading software will read out to visually impaired users.

Colours

We have ensured that the web pages' font and background colour contrast notably enough to enable users to read the text, even if they suffer from conditions such as colour blindness. The contrast in colours also helps people viewing the site on a monochrome (black and white) screen.

Tables

All data tables, such as mortgage rate tables have been created with properly scoped header cells. This enables screen readers to interpret the information in the table correctly. In addition, the mortgage rate tables contain full summaries and caption tags, again, to help screen readers to translate the content in an understandable way.

Content

The copy within our web pages has been written to be clear and concise without using jargon. In order to aid understanding of terms, such as 'AER' for savings accounts, we have provided a glossary which can be opened from any page in the site.

What else needs to be done?

We are aware that some of the tools, such as the mortgage application form are not totally accessible for all users. We are committed to continually improving this site, and making it as accessible as possible.

Over the coming months, we intend to perform the same work on these tools as has been done on the rest of the website. In the meantime, if you are unable to use any functionality on the site, we offer alternative means of help, via the contact us section.

If you have any feedback regarding the accessibility of this site, please email it to us.