In Lesaka Council, we strive every day to get closer to the citizens we work for.

Each user browses differently. Some are faced with technological barriers, such as a slow Internet connections or old computers; others may have difficulty understanding the language used or the browsing tools employed on the site; others may have physical disabilities, visual, auditory or mobility-related, which hinder or even prevent access to the contents of the site.

Traditionally-designed Web sites do not take these differences into account, thereby not allowing, for example, those who cannot use a mouse, see the information displayed on the screen or hear sound via loudspeaker to browse properly.

What is an accessible site?

An accessible site is one whose contents and services can be enjoyed by anybody, regardless of physical, knowledge-related or environment-specific barriers.

What is an accessible site like?

An accessible site has a simple, standard design. This means that a wide range of different tools may be used, such as voice synthesisers, which "read out" the site contents.

The text is plain and straightforward in order to eliminate barriers of understanding.

Its audiovisual contents are described in text format, allowing, for example, those with sight impairments to hear descriptions of images which they are unable to see.

Its structure is clear, simple and intuitive, and it provides browsing aids. Such a structure aims to help those who may have problems moving around through the information as a result of unfamiliarity with the environment or understanding-related, educational or cultural barriers. 

Compliance with standards

This Web site has been redesigned and programmed following the guidelines of the W3C WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative - http://www.w3.org/wai ). The W3C is responsible for regulating and improving Internet use. These norms define international standards for the creation of Web site contents accessible to all.

This Web site complies with the following W3C standards:

1. XHTML
2. CSS
3. WAI-AA

Accessible design

We have followed several accessible-design guidelines:

• The design is based on style sheets instead of tables. This means that users can modify the appearance, contrast and size of the site according to their needs, if they have personalised style sheets.
• Sufficient contrast between elements has been sought, varying some colour combinations on the site.
• The text sizes and other elements use relative measurements, meaning they can be enlarged or reduced from the browser options.
• A semantic design has been used, i.e. the logical structure of all the pages has been defined via HTML code, using headings, lists, links, images, etc. This makes the pages comprehensible both visually and via voice synthesisers, and both with and without Cascading Style Sheets. This type of design also means that the site is displayed properly on different browsers and operating systems.
• Non-textual elements include text descriptions which can be "read" by voice synthesisers.
• Browsings aids, such as breadcrumbs and keyboard shortcuts, are used.
• When functions performed via SCRIPT programming are used, an alternative not based on SCRIPT is provided for browsers which do not support this function or on which it has been disabled.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following shortcuts can be used on this Web site:

• I: Home
• Y: Council.
• L: Town and population.
• U: Tourism.
• M: Economic activity.
• R: Photo gallery.
• N: Agenda.
• O: News.
• C: Consult.
• T: Formalities.
• Z: Contact.
• B: Notice board.
• S: Legal notice.
• A: Accessibility.
• W: Site map.
• P: Map.
• E: The weather.
• K: Site in Basque.

These keyboard shortcuts are used via the following key combinations:

• Internet Explorer: ALT + letter + ENTER.
• Netscape - FireFox: ALT + letter.
• Opera: CAPITALS + ESC + letter.

Enlarge the site display size

As explained above, the design of this site has been modified so that users can adapt not only the size of the text, but also the proportional size of the entire site. If you wish to enlarge or reduce the display size:

Internet Explorer:

• To enlarge: press ctrl and move the central mouse wheel forwards.
• To reduce: press ctrl and move the central mouse wheel backwards.

Netscape - Mozilla:

• To enlarge: press ctrl and the '+' key at the same time
• To reduce: press ctrl and the '-' at the same time

Also available on the menu of your browser: 'view' > 'text size'.

Help us improve

We continue working in order to make elements attached to the site accessible, i.e. non-HTML documents, like Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.

We are also making progress in the redesign of Internet-available electronic administration applications to make them accessible to the entire public as soon as possible.

Work to make a site like this available to everybody is a neverending task. If you come across a problem or wish to suggest a change to improve accessibility, then please let us know via the Suggetions Box.

Accessibility project co-funded by: