Grades of support
Grades of support
The support plan extends different grades/levels of support to different browsers. The grades specify which technology layers must be provided and whether testing must occur. All browsers must receive accessible content layer as a minimum.
See the Progressive enhancement section for a definition of each technology layer.
Full support
- Full support means that users of these browsers should receive a similarly high experience in all technology layers (content, presentation and behaviour).
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Agency sites/applications should be tested in these browsers during development or when significant changes occur.
Reduced support
- Reduced support is reserved for less-capable (usually older) browsers that persist in usage statistics. Serious bugs have been identified in these browsers.
- The primary goal for supporting these browsers is to deliver an accessible content layer. Presentation layer and behaviour layer (or specific parts of these layers) may be suppressed and must be suppressed where serious bugs would otherwise occur.
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Agency sites/applications should be tested in these browsers during development or when significant changes occur.
Unspecified support
- Any browser that is not in the full support or reduced support lists falls into the unspecified support category.
- All technology layers (content, presentation and behaviour) should be served to these browsers.
- Note: Client-side scripts and libraries can be used even if they don’t support some browsers in the unspecified support category, as long as they support all browsers on the full support list.
- No testing is required for these browsers, and no action is required to support them or workaround issues that occur in those browsers.
- Although not officially supported, all browsers must be allowed to access agency sites and users of capable browsers will still receive a good experience.
- As part of periodic reviews, browsers in this category may be moved into the full support or reduced support lists, for example: If their statistical significance changes or serious bugs are identified.
