Accessibility

In order to help you use our site there are a number of features that will help you find what you’re interested in – no matter what equipment you are using to access the internet.

However, before we explain those features, if you would like information on how to adjust your computer set up to make it easier to access the information on this and lots of other websites, we suggest you visit the BBC’s “my web, my way” project. There you will find information such as:

• How to make text bigger and easier to read,
• How to listen to a website instead of reading it, or
• How to use a keyboard to navigate instead of using a mouse all the time

Accessible holidays

We hope that this site provides sufficient information for people to make an informed decision about holidays they would like to go on. Unfortunately we can not provide sufficient information for everyone’s requirements. If you have specific needs relating to a disability or special assistance please call our Customer Welfare Team on 0871 664 0143.

Features of this site

On this site, we have:

1. Used clean structural mark up that should make sense in any device that you use to access the site. This means all headings, lists and links are appropriately marked and should be clearly identifiable in whichever technology you use to access the site.

2. Ensured the site is usable for those with JavaScript (JS) switched off. Whilst it is not possible to provide the same experience with JS switched off, we have ensured that all essential information and functionality is still available. There is more advice below for people who do have JS turned off.

3. Used clear, concise language, including:

• Short headings summarising the related section
• Unique page titles
• Brief but helpful instructions
• Minimal jargon and where used, acronyms have been explained once on each page
4. Separated presentation from content so that content should make sense if the presentation is disabled, or the layout changed to the user’s preferences.

5. All forms are appropriately marked up with labels and are navigable by keyboard and mouse.

6. Adhered to all priority 1 WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) guidelines, the majority of priority 2 and many priority 3 guidelines. Unfortunately compliance with many of these guidelines is subjective and therefore open to debate. If you don’t believe we comply with these guidelines please let us know, describing the difficulty you are having and we will attempt to resolve the issue.

Accessibility barriers

Whilst we have endeavoured to make this site as accessible as possible, it has not always been possible to satisfy all users’ requirements. Below we have listed a number of areas where we have made decisions that may not suit all, and tried to explain the reasons for making those decisions:

1. We do not have closed captions or a text / audio alternative to the videos on this site. Whilst we may look to change this in the future, at present the majority of our videos relate to specific accommodations, and we believe there is sufficient equivalent information in a textual format that captions would largely be redundant.
2. Whilst users can search for holidays without JS turned on, we can not validate their search criteria. For example, if a user selects a departure airport and destination combination that is not part of our flying schedule they will receive no appropriate search results. This is not the case for users with JS activated. The reason for this is that we are unable to deliver “server side” validation of flying routes without a significant performance impact on all holiday searches for all users – essentially we tried to pick the lesser of two evils. For tips on how to deal with this issue please see the section titled “advice for non JS users”.
3. In some instances on images we have both title text and alt text that is identical. At the time we created the templates for the pages this was the advice we received, and largely best practice within the industry. As technology has evolved, this has now become more of a hindrance to some users and we are in the process of removing the duplication from the site.
4. Our store locator is a third party application that requires JS to run. Again, please see the advice section below if you are experiencing this as an issue.
5. Pricing displayed as part promotions require JS to display.

Technology is always evolving and as a result what is best practice one day may not be best practice the next. Unfortunately this is particularly true for accessibility. Whilst we have tried to deliver a site that is accessible to all, if there is anything that you feel could be improved, please contact us.

Advice for non JavaScript (JS) users

For users who do not have JS enabled, here are some tips and tricks that will help you to get the most out of the site:

1. Searching for a holiday: If you are searching for a holiday using the holiday search form, you may find that you often find no available holidays for the search you have performed. This can be caused by:

• Selecting an airport and location that aren’t a part of our flying route – we don’t fly from all airports to all locations. To find out where we fly from and to we suggest you check the individual airport page to see where we fly to from that airport.
• Selecting a location when we don’t fly there at that time of year – some of our locations are winter only or summer only. We suggest you look at the appropriate location or resort page to find out when we fly there.
• Not actually having any flights left available – unfortunately this just means you’re out of luck for that particular date and it doesn’t matter what technology you use, you still won’t be able to book a holiday then. Sorry.

2. Search for our stores: If you want to find your nearest “First Choice Travel Shop”, we suggest you use one of the other directory services available on the web e.g. yell.com, google local etc. Otherwise, please give us a call on 0871 200 7799 and we’ll be able to help resolve any issues you have.

3. Promotions prices: At this stage we are unable to show promotional pricing without the use of JS. We suggest you search for a holiday using the holiday search form as we will be able to display the accurate prices for holidays that match your search criteria. Where promotional prices are displayed you may come across text something like this: style1 lates1234. Please just ignore that text as it is irrelevant and nonsensical.

4. Additional information: Where there is more information about part of a holiday, such as the full explanation of “Bed and Breakfast”, we have included that information at the bottom of the page. This is so that it is available for anyone who wants it, but it does not confuse the main content of each page.

As we develop the site we will try to continue to ensure that all users can access all the content and functionality that this site can offer. As part of our commitment to that we are currently engaging the Shaw Trust to work with us to further develop the accessibility of the site.