Accessibility

• Graphics
• Colours
• Language
• Tables

The Health Service Executive policy on web accessibility requires that all HSE related sites be at least minimally accessible to our visitors with disabilities.

Our definition of minimal accessibility is based upon the World Wide Web Consortium's guidelines "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines" (WCAG). WCAG defines three levels of checkpoint priority, and our policy requires at least WAI-AA WCAG compliance, which means all priority one and two checkpoints. The site you are currently viewing has WAI-AA compliance.

The HSE policy on web accessibility also covers any sites provided by external partners that bear the HSE's name and symbols, and are designated as official HSE services. (Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis for specific sites, at the option of the HSE.)

Graphics
HSE.ie provides text equivalents for non-text elements.

• The ALT attribute is used on all images, and images are only used when necessary.
• Long descriptions are used for images that convey information beyond simply raw text; such as an organization chart or a data graph. These can be accessed by clicking the 'd' under the graphic.

Colour
HSE.ie does not rely upon colour.

• The website designer's use of colored text or images to convey information is not be the only way in which that information is conveyed. People who have difficulty identifying colour will still be able to use the site as other means of identifying heading etc have also been used.
• The web site relies heavily upon stylesheets for visual presentation. However, the pages can still be used without CSS.

Language
HSE.ie works at all times to use plain, understandable English, particularly in areas of the site that describe services for the public.

• The websites should be understandable by anyone, including people with cognitive disabilities, poor readers, younger web users, and those for whom English is not their primary language. Jargon and technical terms are avoided, unless necessary for the target visitors. When they cannot be avoided they are defined if the meaning is not clear from context.
• Some areas of our website are designed for use by clinical and health professionals and as such may contain more technical language where necessary.
• TextHELP - Browsealoud works by speaking website content aloud, while highlighting the word as it is read, you can also magnify the text as required and you have the ability to select different voices.

Tables
HSE.ie ensures that table markup is only used for data tables.

• For tables that express tabular information -- content laid out in columns and rows -- HTML 4.0's features that associate cell content with column and row headers have been used. For more on this, see the HTML 4.0 Specification.