Browser Support Policy

A guide for members of the public, employees and suppliers

Browser Support Policy

1. Application

1.1. This policy, and the accompanying documents, applies to Dorset For You Partners, suppliers and customers. Dorset For You Partners will be encouraged to adopt this and/or similar policies that may also be protected and supported. This recognises the joint responsibility of suppliers and Dorset For You in ensuring that all customers benefit from access to dorsetforyou.com. Customers are advised to follow the guidance given in this document which aims to help and support them in the use of dorsetforyou.com.

2. Policy statement

2.1. This policy only addresses the needs of 'web browsing' and does not cover browsing dorsetforyou.com on digital television and mobile devices. These will be considered in the future.

2.2. This policy does not cover language sites requiring non-Latin character sets.

2.3. In keeping with the commitment to the promotion of website accessibility, we will keep under review policies, procedures, documentation and practices to ensure all customers benefit from access to dorsetforyou.com.

3. Positive action

3.1. We will take steps to develop and implement dorsetforyou.com projects to ensure that they uphold the Browser Support Policy.

3.2. The criteria for selecting and testing browsers that will fully support dorsetforyou.com are determined according to customer usage and market share.

Browser Support Guidelines

1. Objective

By providing a written policy dorsetforyou.com aims to:

a) Ensure that all dorsetforyou.com suppliers are aware of the policy, it's aims and objectives and their role in implementation.

b) To provide an open and accountable statement to our customers of the technology standards that we aim to use.

2. Definition of terms

Target browser

• Definition: the most popular browser at present 
• Support level: everything must work as intended

Supported browser

• Definition: other browsers that need to be supported for the majority of our users
• Support level: all content and functionality must work, any degradation to presentation
  MUST be minimal degradation

Partially-supported browser

• Definition: other browsers, which are not supported but not explicitly unsupported 
• Support level: all content MUST work, navigation functionality MUST work any degradation to (client-side) application functionality MUST be graceful degradation, presentation degradation MUST not obscure content

Unsupported browser

• Definition: published list of buggy browsers that we do not support, and would advise current users to update. Bugs cause minor deviations from intended website behaviour that customers can work around to get the intended functionality.br />Support level: none necessary (the cost of support is too high for a small percentage of users)

Graceful degradation (for applications)

If a client-side application doesn't work in a given browser, it should either:

• present an alternative that does; or
• tell the user why it doesn't work and what to do about it (upgrade your browser) - this can be thought of as zero degradation; or
• not let the user realise they're missing anything (be aware of any promotion for the application)

Minimal degradation (of presentation)

Presentation should be "as close as possible" to the target browser, bearing in mind cost-benefits: "as close as possible" is defined as acceptable variance in the following aspects of presentation which differ between browsers:

• White space between paragraphs (below the fold)
• Things lining up with each other
• Font anti-aliasing
• Form text boxes
• Colouring (different gamma between Mac OS and Windows)
• Choice of (pre-installed) font
• 24-/32-bit colour
• Top/left margins
• Size of scroll-bars (not being able to get rid of scroll-bars)

3. Browser support

3.1. We aim to develop dorsetforyou.com to be usable and accessible on Windows and Mac platforms across a reasonable range of browsers.

3.2. The perceived quality of dorsetforyou.com is dependent on the ability of the user's browser to accurately represent the following:

(a) Content
(b) Presentation
(c) Functionality, split into:

• Navigation
• (Client-side) Applications

3.3. All dorsetforyou.com pages should be coded to relevant W3C HTML standards, and will therefore be supported by browsers that have been developed to comply with the W3C guidelines and specifications.

3.4. Browsers that do not uphold W3C guidelines and specifications might not interpret the relevant W3C HTML standard code used for dorsetforyou.com correctly. This will result in the website not being displayed correctly.

3.5. Functionality work-arounds will only be considered necessary for popular browsers that do not uphold W3C guidelines and specifications, including the UAAG. Our definition of 'popular' being those browsers that have over 5% of market share.

3.6. Should functionality work-arounds be considered necessary, then they will be added to meet the support and test level for each browser, as described by the list and definitions.

3.7. If time and resources allow, we may choose to include explicit support for partially-supported browsers in this case, these should then be prioritised further up the list.

3.8. dorsetforyou.com acknowledges the W3C UAAG. At the time of publishing the Browser Support Policy the W3C do not maintain a list of conforming User Agents. In the future dorsetforyou.com will aim to be supported by web browsers that have been developed to comply with the W3C UAAG.

4. Recruitment and selection of web suppliers

5.1. We will seek to ensure that all documentation relating to the selection/tenders of web suppliers acknowledges the existing of this policy and its guidance.

5. Monitoring

5.1. We will monitor browser market share on a regular basis

5.2. We will monitor what browser versions dorsetforyou.com is being viewed through on a regular basis

5.3. We will monitor the W3C UAAG and future browsers that will be developed and published as conforming to these standards.