§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what actions he has taken or is taking to ensure that the websites of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if he will make a statement. [117350]
1043W
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office have taken a number of measures to ensure their suite of websites are accessible.
The FCO main website, i-UK website, UK Visas and new embassy and high commission websites have all been built in line with the 'Guidelines for Government Websites' published by the Cabinet Office, which lays down comprehensive guidance on accessibility. The FCO web team have also consulted the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) on issues of accessibility relating to design and functionality of the websites and have put several of their recommendations into practice. In particular we have implemented several features specifically for the benefit of those who are partially sighted or blind, namely a text-only version, government standard access keys and HTML that validates to the internationally accepted standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).