Accessibility

GIO is committed to ensuring our website is accessible to everyone. Therefore, our goal is to comply with the W3C / WCAG 2.0 Level AA guidelines for website accessibility. We welcome your suggestions and feedback on these systems.

Continuous improvement policy

As online technology advances, the need to support new initiatives and integrate them with industry standard best practices is an ongoing challenge. GIO is aware of this need and is committed to a policy of continuous improvement. The following steps are in place to achieve this;

  • Whenever updating existing content, check that it complies with WCAG 2.0 (Level AA)
  • Ensure all new content is compliant with WCAG2.0 (Level AA)
  • Future website upgrades to comply with WCAG 2.0

Investigate other web accessibility technologies and services such as screen readers, voice recognition systems and other devices to assist persons with disabilities

We thank you for your patience while we work towards achieving better website accessibility for all. Below is a summary of the actions we are taking to meet these standards along with a number of ways that are currently available to assist those with disabilities to better access our website.

  • GIO - current web standards
  • Web browsers
  • JavaScript
  • PDF files
  • Font sizes
  • Screen size/resolution
  • TTY service
  • Tab key navigation

GIO - current web standards

  • HTML5
  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 3.0

Web Browsers

The GIO website has been designed for best performance and viewing on Internet Explorer 11, Chrome 43, and Firefox 38 or later.

JavaScript

In order to operate the GIO website as intended, JavaScript should be enabled on your web browser. If JavaScript is disabled in your browser, we cannot guarantee the performance of the website. See your browser help files for instructions on how to enable this functionality.

PDF files

GIO uses the popular Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) standard for presenting certain information on our website. The purpose of this format is to enable documents to be easily downloaded or printed, whilst keeping the original design and layout intact, a feature that is not always possible when downloading or printing a pure HTML web page. Note: GIO is aware that the PDF format does present some difficulties for some users and as such has developed a function that allows text only viewing of PDF files. This function is undergoing testing at present and is not yet available for release on our website. When this function is released, there will be a link clearly marked next to each PDF document.

Font sizes

We recommend using the controls built into your web browser, as they have a much larger zoom range. Following are some tips on how to do this:

Internet Explorer or Opera web browser (Windows):

You can use the zoom functionality to increase the size of all elements on the screen. Locate the Zoom icon in your toolbar or bottom status bar to change the zoom level.

Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Firefox (Windows):

Hold down the Ctrl key and press The Plus or Minus key. Or

Hold down the Ctrl key and scroll with your mouse wheel.

Screen size/resolution

The GIO website has been designed to scale across desktop and mobile devices.

TTY/National Relay Service

A free TTY (text phone) service is available to our website users who would like to have a Relay Officer assist in their conversations with GIO. This service is provided by the National Relay Service (NRS). NB: This service is subject to the hours of operation of the NRS service.

Users who are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment can call through the National Relay Service:

  • TTY users phone 13 36 77 then ask for the GIO telephone number 13 10 10 (available 24 hours)
  • Speak and Listen (speech-to-speech relay) users phone 1300 555 727 then ask for the GIO telephone number 13 10 10 (available 24 hours)
  • Internet relay users connect to the NRS (see http://relayservice.gov.au/ for details) and then ask for the GIO telephone number 13 10 10 (available 24 hours)

Tab key navigation

The GIO website may be navigated by using the Tab key to access most areas and links within our site on a page by page basis.

External Resources

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains web standards, including Accessibility. For more information, please visit their site: http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility