Cambridgeshire County Council is dedicated to improving the accessibility options available on our website. We are currently working to address all accessibility issues and are committed to offering the highest standard of experience for all visitors.
We have implemented several changes designed to aid accessibility, and although certain sections are still under review, we are working to address these issues quickly.
Current accessibility features include:
Altering text size and contrast
The text size and contrast option is which is available at the top of every page. As well as being able to view the pages in 'standard' or 'larger' text, visitors can selecte a 'high contrast' mode, which has been designed to aid visitors with visual difficulties by using contrasting text and background colours.
Icons for external links
When visitors navigate the website, they will see a blue icon next to many links. 
This blue icon indicates that a link will open in a new browser window. The icon can be found next to any external links listed in the 'Related pages' section on the right of each page. It can also be found in the main page content and is designed to alert visitors that the link they are looking at is external to Cambridgeshire County Council website.
Icons for file formats
Icons are displayed next to the many documents that are available on the website. As with the blue icon for external links, these icons indicate the software or application required to open a particular resource. These icons relate to PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and generic multimedia files.
Icons:
Portable Document Format (.pdf)
Word document (.doc)
PowerPoint (.ppt)
Media (video/image/other)
Hidden text for screen readers
The website contains hidden text, designed to benefit visitors who are using assistive technology such as screen readers, who rely on such software to access and interpret web content. The hidden text includes notifications for certain information, such as external links that open in new windows and file formats, and is designed to offer those using assistive technologies the same high standard of experience that all visitors should expect.
Link focus
Some users with cognitive and visual difficulties can find it difficult to discern a selected link.
To assist with this, we have introduced a highlighted focus style, which some users may notice where using keyboard or switch technology to navigate a page.
Skip to content links
For keyboard and switch users, it is difficult and often frustrating to have to tab through all links in the header of a page, before reaching the content.
To avoid this, all pages have a 'skip to content' link, allowing such users to quickly navigate to the content area of a page.
Page mark-up
Behind the scenes we work with our technical development team to improve the quality and consistency of the code used to display our pages.
Poor quality code can present a barrier to accessibility by prohibiting certain browsers or technologies from displaying pages correctly and in a consistent manner.
These improvements will ensure that our pages are more accessible, irrespective of what choice and version of browser or the types of assistive technologies are used to access the site.
Page structure
We are working with services throughout Cambridgeshire County Council in order to ensure that all pages on our website have logical structure. The changes have been designed to aid all visitors, regardless of accessibility needs.
As with all the above improvements, we consider this to be an ongoing project. We welcome all feedback in relation to accessibility issues and with your help aim to continue to develop and improve our website.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please contact the Web Strategy Team using the contact details in the right-hand navigation.