Trinity College Dublin – Web Accessibility Statement

Trinity College is committed to providing web pages that are accessible to all users, including users with disabilities. To this end, new Trinity websites meet W3C Level 2 Web Accessibility guidelines (WAI AA). Due to the large volume of pages on the College website (many of which, while updated regularly, were designed some time ago) it is not possible at this time to have all pages meeting Level 2 Web Accessibility.

Screen Readers

Examples of screen readers are as JAWS and Browsealoud.

Useful information for navigating Trinity web pages with Screen Readers

The following gives important information about how new Trinity websites are structured. The first link on a Trinity web page is a hidden link called "Skip to main content ". By pressing enter on this link, the screen reader will skip directly to the main page content. Many web pages include a "Back to Top" link at the bottom of the page. Pressing enter on this link will take the user back to the top of the start of the main content.

The standard Trinity header includes the following:

The College Crest – links back to the Trinity Home Page.
Search Box - searches the entire Trinity website.
Trinity Core Navigation - links to TCD Home, Faculties and Schools, Courses, Research, Services, Contact and A - Z

The standard Trinity footer includes the following:

Trinity's postal address.
Links to Accessibility, Privacy and Disclaimer statements.

Information about Trinity Web Design and Web Accessibility

The following technical web design requirements apply to the design and coding of Trinity College websites. All new websites are required to meet W3C Level 2 Web Accessibility guidelines (http://www.w3.org/WAI/).

Navigation and Tables
All data tables have summary tags and blank summary tags for layout tables. Data tables are coded using Row and Column titles. A "Skip Navigation" Link is also used to enable users to go straight to web page content.
Links
Many links use the title attribute, which describes the links in more detail.
Images
All images use an alt tag or longdesc tag. Blank alt tags are used for bulleted-list images, spacer images, etc.
Font-sizing and Stylesheets
Standard stylesheets have been developed which size fonts consistently across all supported browsers. Stylesheets are used to control the presentation of all web pages and the use of a sans-serif font is set as default. If a browser does not support stylesheets, the content of each page is still readable.
Forms
All forms are coded using label and id attributes.
Validators
Websites that are designed by and in conjunction with the Web Office are validated for XHTML 1.0 Transitional using the W3.org markup validator and Level 2 Web Accessibility referencing the WAI guidelines.

Further information

For more in depth information regarding the Trinity's web design requirements, please see the Design Requirements, Recommendations and Designing for Accessibility sections of the Trinity web design website.