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Ticket hotline: 0844 579 3001 / Hospitality: 0151 522 2911 /

Accessibility Statement (Disability Discrimination Act)

Disability Discrimination Act

Aintree Racecourse is committed to making the course grounds available to as many people as possible meeting the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and makes every effort to ensure its communications and facilities are accessible to those with special needs, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments.

On-Site Accessibility

With the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in October 2005, Aintree Racecourse, in common with all premises offering access to the Public in England and Wales, assumed a mandatory obligation to provide easy access to all parts of its premises for people with Disabilities, wherever reasonably practicable. The Act recognizes, however, that full access is not always reasonably achievable in older existing buildings, and therefore states that in these cases people with disabilities should be able to gain easy access into the premises and that the services they require should be made available to them in close proximity to their entry point.

Aintree Racecourse comprises an interlinked grouping of multi-storey buildings on one site, some updated as recently as 2008 and with significant changes in floor levels both between and within individual buildings.

To meet the requirements of the legislation, we have made substantial practicable changes to our facilities that include:
• Inclusion of induction loops installed in suites and bars
• Braille being included on the majority of our signage
• Improvements to disabled viewing areas
• Suite doors being widened
• Lowering of Tote facilities to improve access for betting purposes
• Viewing balconies improved for wheelchair access
• The introduction of a disabled lift
• Changes to existing lifts to allow wheelchair operation
• Increasing disabled car parking access
• Widened car parking spaces and installed appropriate signage
• New and more centrally located disabled toilets
• Modification of existing toilets to allow ambulant disabled access (including widening cubicles, installation of grab rails, lengthening mirrors, adjusting flush mechanisms, adjustments to door locking facilites and washbasin and handles)
• Refuge areas constructed in case of fire (including the installation of a 2-way communication system with the on-site control room to each point)
• Additional Evac chairs
• Changes to health and safety procedures to protect disabled persons
• Changes in admissions policy in respect of disabled persons (ie, allowing carers in free of charge – on shoulder meetings – This excludes the Grand National)
• Disability specific training for key personnel

Aintree Racecourse is committed to improving access and movement through the buildings for people with physical, sensory and psychological disabilities and impairments through many ongoing upgrading and improvement programmes.

Disabled Toilet facilities can be located in:
• Princess Royal Stand
• County Stand
• Queen Mother Stand
• Earl of Derby Stand
• Lord Sefton Stand
• Winner’s Bar
• Paddock Lodge
• Equestrian Centre
• Klick Fitness Car Park
• The Media Centre
• The Weighing Room

Lowered Services counters are available in the The Red Rum Bar, Hedgehunter Bar, Tattersalls, Stands and in the Tote. Induction Loops are available in  all stands on the racecourse.
 

Website Accessibility

Many Internet users can find websites difficult to use due to the way they have been designed. We recognise that this is an important issue and are making changes to ensure that the aintree.co.uk website is accessible in accordance with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines.

We have strived to make this website adhere to priority 1 and 2 guidelines of the W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and in some cases priority 3. Changes to improve accessibility are ongoing, but if you come across a page you find difficult to use please let us know.

The code used to create the site validates as HTML 4 Transitional, and the CSS has also been validated. The pages use structured semantic markup where necessary.

Standards Compliance

All pages validate as HTML 4 Transitional, uses structured semantic markup and the CSS has also been validated.

Our pages conform to Level AA compliance as specified by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and endorsed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

We strive to obey the spirit of the UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995 with respect to the provision of services online, as required by the Disability Rights Commission.

 Design Accessibility

Many Internet users with disabilities find website difficult or even impossible to use simply because of the way they are designed. This website has been designed to be as accessible as possible and to be compatible with the types of adaptive technology used by people with disabilities, including screen readers. As such, visitors can control the size of the text and can use ‘access keys’ on the keyboard rather than the mouse to navigate through pages.

The stylesheet uses relative font sizes and is written to display pages correctly in most commonly used browsers. In early versions of browsers and browsing devices that do not support stylesheets at all, the flow of the content has been tested to ensure it entirely retains its sense.

Foreground and background colours contrast well throughout the site, with the majority of content appearing black on white.

The site is free of frames and uses a cascading style sheet for visual layout. Tables are used for tabular data, but we have avoided using them to dictate the layout of a page wherever possible.

Internal Navigation Links

At the start of every page are invisible links providing direct access to content, navigation and the accessibility statement, each with access keys. When keyboard navigating, however, the links become visible - try tabbing through the links on the page.

Access Keys

Most modern browsers support jumping to specific links by typing ‘access keys’. Our access keys use the UK government access keys system where applicable and these access keys take you to the relevant page within the site. These simple instructions will enable you to use ‘access keys’ on the Mac and Windows.

Macintosh Users:
You press Control + the ‘access’ key.

Windows Users:
Safari 3+ & Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+
Press ALT + the ‘access’ key, then press the ‘ENTER’ key to trigger the action.

Firefox 1+:
Press SHIFT & ALT + the ‘access’ key.

Opera. 9+:
Press SHIFT & ESC, then select the appropriate ‘access’ key from the list displayed.

• [N] - Skip to navigation
• [X] - Skip to content
• [A] - Access key details
• [S] - Search
• [H] - Home page
• [M] - Site map
• [0] - Accessibility information
• [1] - Grand National
• [2] - Racing at Aintree
• [3] - Hospitality
• [4] - Sponsorship
• [5] - Conferences & Events
• [6] - Aintree Golf Centre & Driving Range

Links

External website links on the site will open a new browser window and most links have title attributes, which describe the link in greater detail, and in the majority of cases the text of the link already fully describes the target. Wherever possible, links are written to make sense out of context.

Link text is never duplicated. Two links on the same page with the same link text always point to the same address. External links on the site will open a new browser window (when the link target is on a non-Aintree Racecourse site). New windows are never opened without either a warning in the text or in the ‘title’ attribute of the link.

Images

All content images on the site include descriptive ALT attributes. Those purely decorative graphics or used for layout include empty ALT attributes.

PDFs

Most documents on this website are PDFs (portable document format). The advantage of a PDF is that it will always be presented consistently. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDF files, and this can be downloaded for free. Adobe has recently updated its free reader to include screenreading functionality.

Adobe also has a free online conversion tool for pdfs so people who have problems reading PDFs can convert them so that they appear as normal web pages or plain text.

Flash

Due to the use of Macromedia Flash technology in some sections of the website and the interactive nature of these modules, certain users working with assistive technologies may be unable to fully engage with all pages. Every effort has been made to ensure the Flash activities will include accessibility features that ensure that dyslexic, visually impaired and motor impaired users can engage with the content. Where it is possible, we provide accessible versions of Flash content by using plain text.

JavaScript

The site has been configured to allow users access to its full range of functionality whether or not they have JavaScript enabled in their browsers. Where JavaScript is used, it is only used to enhance the user experience. It is never essential.

Known browser support

This website operates on a wide range of browsers.

PC operating systems:

• Internet Explorer 7
• Internet Explorer 6
• Mozilla Firefox 2.0
• Opera 9.01
• Safari 3.0
• Lynx

Apple Macintosh operating systems:

• Safari 3.0
• Safari 2.0
• Mozilla Firefox 2.0
• Mozilla Firefox 1.5
• Opera 9.01