Accessibility

People reach this site on old phones, on slow connections, with screen readers, with magnification, and sometimes while distressed. Every one of those is a normal way to use it, so accessibility is part of how the site is built rather than something added at the end.

What we aim for

WCAG 2.2 Level AA. That is the standard Australian government services are held to, and it is the right bar for a health resource. We aim to meet it; we have not had an independent audit, so we describe this as our target rather than a certified result.

Accessibility and display options

The Aa button in the header opens optional controls for text size and spacing, line height, a plain sans-serif font, stronger contrast and links, reduced animation and decorative images, a larger pointer and a reading guide. The existing light, dark and system themes are there too. Changes apply straight away and follow you between pages on this browser.

These controls are personal preferences, not a repair switch. The site's structure, keyboard support, focus indicators and readable content are always present. Browser zoom, screen readers and device accessibility settings continue to work normally, and device requests for reduced motion or more contrast are always honoured.

Choose Reset all at the bottom of the panel to return to the system theme and remove every saved preference. The settings stay in your browser's local storage, contain no identifying information, and are not sent to us or to analytics. The panel itself needs JavaScript; the site's information remains available without it. Public forms using a bot check are the separate, clearly labelled exception.

What the site does

• Works without JavaScript. Every page, including the complete directory of practitioners, is readable and searchable with scripts blocked. JavaScript adds filtering, interactive menus and display preferences. Public forms that use bot protection explain when scripting is required.
• Keyboard throughout. A skip link, visible focus outlines, and keyboard paths through the navigation, display-options panel and directory filters.
• Light, dark and system themes. Set from the display-options panel; system is the default and follows your device.
• Respects reduced motion. If your device asks for less animation, transitions are effectively removed.
• Real structure. Headings, landmarks, lists and labelled form fields, so a screen reader can navigate by them.
• Reflows. Usable down to a 320px screen and at 200% zoom without horizontal scrolling.
• Stays light. No web fonts to wait for, no tracking scripts beyond one analytics tag, no video, no autoplay.

Where we know we fall short

This list is deliberately specific. A vague accessibility statement helps nobody.

• No independent audit. Our testing is manual — keyboard, screen reader and zoom passes by volunteers. Real users find things we don't.
• Colour contrast is under review. Some smaller muted text — card summaries in particular — has not been measured against every background in both themes. We are working through it.
• Embedded maps use OpenStreetMap. We don't control the accessibility or colours inside that map. The address and practitioner details are always shown as text as well, so nothing depends on the map.
• Documents we link to aren't ours. Many resources here are PDFs published by other organisations. We can't guarantee they are tagged or readable, and we can't fix them. Tell us if one is unusable and we'll look for an alternative or ask the publisher.
• Preferences cannot change everything. They do not alter the inside of embedded maps or bot-check widgets, and they cannot restyle a PDF or other downloaded document after it opens.
• The directory is a long page. All listings are in the HTML so that it works without JavaScript and can be searched with your browser's find. That makes it heavy on an old device. We would rather it be slow than unavailable.

Tell us about a barrier

If something here is hard or impossible to use, we want to know — it is the fastest way for us to find real problems. Contact us and, if you can, include:

• the page address;
• what you were trying to do;
• what happened instead;
• your browser, device and any assistive technology, if you know it.

None of that is required. "The directory filters don't work for me on my phone" is a perfectly useful report. We are volunteers and replies can take up to two weeks, but access problems get looked at first.

If you need information from this site in another format, ask and we will send it to you as plain text or read it to you over email.

Last reviewed 3 August 2026.