Accessibility

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

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, Mozilla/Firefox for Windows
'Ctrl' key if using Internet Exploer, Mozilla/Firefox, 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
3 - Sitemap
4 - not used
5 – not used
6 - not used
7 - not used
8 - Terms and Conditions
9 - Contact Us

3. then press 'Enter' if using Internet Explorer for Windows PC - other browsers go to the page immediately.

These keys have been selected so as not to conflict with those in use by assistive technologies such as JAWS, Supernova and HomePageReader.

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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.

Increase Text Size using Website Option

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.

You can increase the size of the text using your web browser options.
 

Increase Text Size using Internet Explorer

View - Text Size - Larger / Largest

Increase Text Size in Internet Explorer

Increase Text Size using Firefox

View – Text Size – Increase

Increase Text Size in Firefox

Increase text Size using Opera

Zoom and 100+ Percentage

Increase text Size using Netscape

View - Text Size - Increase

Increase Text Size using Safari

Apple Key and '+' Key

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Changing Page Colours

You may also change the colours using your web browser options.

Changing Colours using Internet Explorer

Click on Tools

Change Colours in Internet Explorer start with Tools - Options

Then click on the Accessibility button in the window that pops up

Select Accessibility Option from IE Tools


Then select the 'Ignore colors' option.

Select Ignore Colours from IE Accessibility Options

Note you could also select the 'Ignore font styles' and 'Ignore font size' options to alter the look and size of the text.

Changing Colours using Firefox

Select Ignore Styles in Firefox

Changing Colours using Opera

View – Style – User Mode

Changing Colours using Netscape

Tool - Options - then define your preference (this is of limited use)

Changing Colours using Safari

Not Available

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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).

Switch off CSS in Internet Explorer

Switching off CSS using Firefox

View - Page Style - No Style

Switch off CSS in Firefox

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

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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 Link opens in new window.


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.

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Screen Reader Setting Recommendations

For users of JAWS we recommend the following sort order

title|text|alt|href

as the best configuration to set.

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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:

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.

To configure your operating system to tailor its accessibility features to your needs, you can follow one or more of the links below

 

Validation of Accessibility

It attained level WAI 'AAA' on 31st August 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 31st August 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.