Accessibility, Copyright and Policy Info
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Accessibility
HTML documents are said to be accessible if they are optimised for users with
physical disabilities, and are compliant with a variety of software and hardware configurations.
To access this site, we used to advise that you use a screen with a resolution of at
least 1024 pixels in width, and a browser which runs JavaScript 1.5 and HTML 4. This site has now
largely been re-coded so that is accessible on mobile phones with a limited screen width. However,
some older pages, or pages with specialised information, might still be better viewed on a
traditional wide-screen device.
Visually-impaired users should note that you can specify the font sizes, styles and
colors, and foreground and background colors of web pages displayed on your computer screen, even
if the author of the page has already specified these. You can also specify the colour used to
indicate links in web pages, or a special colour for links that is used only when the mouse passes
over the link. This is useful if you have low vision, need larger fonts, or need high-contrast
colors.
Some pages on this site require JavaScript to be enabled within your browser. See
further information.
Access Keys
Access keys have been defined for the pages on this site to enable you to navigate using
the keyboard shortcuts shown in the list at the foot of this page. Additionally, your browser
probably has shortcut keys for back (try alt left-arrow), forward (alt right-arrow) and home (alt
home).
The Access Keys facility is supported by most browsers. To use the facility, press the
ALT key and, simultaneously, the access key number or letter. Release the keys and then, with
some browsers, you need to press the RETURN key. With Macintosh-based systems you should use
the CTRL key instead of the ALT key.
File Formats
Some documents on this site are stored in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) or
Microsoft Word format. These file formats are used to store documents with complex formatting that
the authors would like to preserve (typically text in several columns and mixed with a number of
graphics). Some documents may be compressed using WinZip.
PDF: To view and print PDF files, you must have a PDF reader installed. Adobe
Acrobat PDF readers are available for download for most computers from
adobe.com/products/acrobat. If you are a
RISC-OS user you could try
this link or do a
Google search. GNU/Linux people might like to use
evince,
xpdf, gpdf, or kpdf, or try this
Google search.
WORD: Microsoft Word viewers and converters are available from
office.microsoft.com/downloads/.
ZIP: You can download WinZip from winzip.com.
Scope of Web Site
Like any Web site, it is sometimes difficult to tell where one site begins and another
ends. Even within the BCRA site, the responsibility for some pages has been delegated to SIGs,
meetings organisers, bibliographers and so on. If in doubt about the origin of a page, please
contact the BCRA's Web Site Editor.
Site Policies
Link Exchanges: This web site is intended, primarily, to provide information about
the British Cave Research Association and its activities. It is not a listings site nor is it a
diary site. In general, it is the policy of this web site not to accept requests for link
exchanges with other organisations. Instead, there are a number of privately-maintained listings
and diary sites for caving and speleology which you may wish to make use of. If you encounter a
listings site that you think has particular merit, and you let us know, we may consider linking to
it.
The reason for our policy arises out of considering what good is a listings list that
only lists links to a few organisations, and what use is a diary that only lists a few items? What
inferences can a reader make from such information? He will think that the list is selective;
maybe that BCRA has endorsed some organisations and their web sites in preference to others. A
listing or diary site has to be comprehensive to be worthwhile. Or to put it another way,
if you are requesting that we include a link to your specialist organisation, where on our site
should we include it so that it does not look out of place? At this point, you may be thinking
"Well, how does a list ever get started". The answer is that it requires a dedicated volunteer
whose task it is to compile and maintain a comprehensive list. As noted above, there are a
number of such sites and, such is the power of the Internet, it is not necessary for BCRA to set
up yet another such site and nor does BCRA have the volunteers to do so. The web site you are
reading now is for information about BCRA.
Use of Web Cookies
Cookies are small amounts of data that your web browser stores on your computer so that
the data is accessible to other web pages. In the UK, section 6 of
The Privacy and Electronic
Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, SI 2426, and its
2011 amendment require
that cookies are only used by a web server if the user "is provided with clear and comprehensive
information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information". Therefore, for
a statement on the use of web cookies on this website, please see Using
Cookies with this web site.
Copyright
For web pages, copyright in the text, photographs, graphics, and computer code (including
but not limited to client-side and server-side scripting and style sheets) resides with the
individual authors and is licensed to BCRA. The typographical layout of BCRA's periodicals
(including the online versions) is owned by BCRA although additional copyright in the text,
photographs, graphics and related items may reside with individual authors. The copyright owners
assert their Moral Rights to the maximum extent possible under the Design, Copyright and Patents
Act 1988 and any applicable subsequent Acts. Subject to statutory exception and to the extent
permitted in this notice no material may be reproduced by any method without permission of the
copyright owners. These Web pages may be downloaded onto a hard disk or printed for your personal
use provided that you include all copyright statements and that you make no alterations to any of
the pages and that you do not use any of the pages in any other work or publication in whatever
medium stored. Additionally BCRA grants permission to the British Library to make a snapshot copy
of this website at any time for the UK Web Archive.
Also see: Copyright of BCRA Publications
Use of robots.txt
This site uses a simple robots command file to control
access by search engines.
Data Protection Policy
(1) BCRA will guard the data of its members, subscribers and other customers in
accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998) and its Schedules. Personal data shall be obtained
only for the specified purposes of i) administering membership, subscription and sales services
and ii) mailing of items solicited by its customers. Data will not be disclosed to any third party
nor used for any purpose other than those stated above without the express consent of the
customer. Data may be stored at more than one location and may be stored on paper and in computer
files.
(2) Email addresses may be stored by software applications such as
phpBB (used at bcra.org.uk/forum) and mailman (used at list.bcra.org.uk) for the purpose of administering web and
email forums to which the customer has opted to subscribe and by such action indicated his
agreement to any stated or implied terms and conditions. Where such software applications issue or
require passwords the user is expected to be familiar enough with these software applications
(which are widespread throughout the Internet) to understand the consequences of such passwords
being weak and transmitted en clair.
(3) As a general policy, where it is required that customers' email addresses are stored,
they will be stored within the environment of a software application such as described under (2)
where it is the user's responsibility to check and maintain his subscription details. As a general
policy (although not without possible exception) we will not store lists of email addresses to
which staff have access for general mailing purposes.
Disclaimer
The authors' opinions are not necessarily endorsed by the editor of this Web site, nor
the BCRA. Information on this web site is given in good faith but, nevertheless, it may contain
errors for which neither the authors nor the BCRA expect to be considered liable. This site is
written and maintained entirely by volunteers and any inadequacies in its presentation or
deficiencies in its accessibility are due to the fact that volunteers frequently have only limited
skills and limited available time.
