Accessibilty
This site has been designed to be Accessible for people with any degree of visual or motor impairment and users of screen readers.
Please click on the links to find out about more about the Accessibility of this website:
- Access Keys
- Increasing Page Text Size
- Changing Page Colours
- Switching off Styles
- Links to External Sites
- Problems Accessing Documents
- Screen Reader Setting Recommendations
- Useful Accessibility Links for PDFs, Browsers and Operating Systems
Access Keys
Access Keys provide a quick way to navigate round the site without using a mouse, and on this site are based on the UK Government Access Keys system.
The keys are used in conjuction with Alt or Ctrl and Enter keys which vary depending on your browser.
1. Hold down
'Alt' key if using Internet Explorer for Windows
'Ctrl' key if using Mozilla/Firefox, or if using Internet Explorer or Safari on a Mac
'Shift' and 'Esc' together if using Opera (note Opera ignores numeric Access Keys)
2. and simultaneously select a key from the list below
S - Skip navigation and go to page content
0 - Accessibility details
1 - Home
2 - not used
Simply click on the 'A' to the right of the default size to increase the text size by one or two degrees.
The chosen text size is thereafter indicated by the hyphen on top of the A.
This will remain the chosen default size of text thereafter.
You can increase the size of the text even further using your web browser options.
Increasing Page Text Size
To alter the size of the text on the web pages, you may use the Text Size option availble on every page.
Simply click on the 'A' to the right of the default size to increase the text size by one or two degrees.
The chosen text size is thereafter indicated by the hyphen on top of the A.
This will remain the chosen default size of text thereafter.
You can increase the size of the text even further using your web browser options.
Increase Text Size using Internet Explorer
View - Text Size - Larger / Largest
Increase Text Size using Firefox
View – Text Size – Increase
Increase text Size using Opera
Increase text Size using Netscape
Increase Text Size using Safari
Apple Key and '+' Key
Changing Page Colours
You may also change the colours using your web browser options.
Changing Colours using Internet Explorer
Click on Tools
Then click on the Accessibility button in the window that pops up
Then select the 'Ignore colors' option.
Changing Colours using Firefox
Increase text Size using Opera
Increase text Size using Netscape
Increase Text Size using Safari
Apple Key and '+' Key
Switching off Styles
In addition to Accessible graphical pages, the website also provides a Low Graphics option that eliminates most or all imagery from a page. Listeners may also find it easier to hear object-heavy pages (e.g. lots of flash) as the low graphics involves repetitive phrases.
Access the low graphics version of this website using the 'Low Graphics' link shown on the page.
You can return to the graphical view using the High Graphics link.
Alternatively, uou may choose to ignore the styles used by the designer using your browser's options.
Switching off CSS using Internet Explorer
Tools - Internet Options - General - Accessibility and then select three checkboxes (or supply your own stylesheet).
Switching off CSS using Firefox
View - Page Style - No Style
Switching off CSS using Opera
Use Ctrl-G
Switching off CSS using Netscape
View - Page Style - No Style
Switching off CSS using Safari
Not possible - all you can do is append your stylesheet and this is an advanced topic
Links to External Sites
All links to external sites open in a new window and this site is not responsible for the content or accessibility of these referenced sites.
All links which open a new browser window will be indicated by this icon
.
Problems Accessing Documents
If you have any problems accessing the documents published on this
website, please contact us and we will supply you with the document in
an accessible format.
Back to top
Screen Reader Setting Recommendations
For users of JAWS we recommend the following sort order
title|text|alt|href
as the best configuration to set.
Back to top
Useful Accessibility Links for PDFs, Browsers and Operating Systems
This site uses Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
To view PDF files, you will need to download and install a PDF reader.
The Adobe site offers:
-
Free Acrobat Reader
-
Accessibility Conversion Tools
-
PDF Accessibility Information
-
There
is more information on PDF Accessibility and other issues from the RNIB
(Royal National Institute of the Blind) Access Centre
Many web browsers have accessibility features, which help you use
the web in the way that best suits you. We recommend you select the
browser which best suits your needs, and these links give you some
helpful guidance whether you want to best configure your web browser or
download a more suitable one.
Note that there are many different web browsers available, and
many versions of each of them, so it would be impractical for us to
list them all here. We have chosen the most popular as a guide that you
may find useful.
-
Internet Explorer help and support
-
FireFox help and support
-
Opera help and support
-
Netscape help and support
-
Microsoft publishes detailed information on changing Windows
-
Apple provides detailed information on configuring the Mac's operating system
-
Linux users can go to this website for details on configuring Linux
-
The BBC also provides details on changing your operating system
Validation of Accessibility
It attained level WAI 'AA' on 26th October 2006, and was evaluated using Bobby 5.00.6.3 and by subsequent manual checking.
This website was also validated as XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant on 26th October 2006, using the W3C and Web Design Group validators, with CSS2 compliance.
Audio content and navigation for talking browsers and screen readers has been checked by listening to the site using JAWS. The site is also compatible with Supernova and IBM Home Page Reader when using Internet Explorer 5 or above.
All trivial images have null Alt text.