Accessibility

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 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
  • 3 - not used
  • 4 - not used
  • 5 - not used
  • 6 - Skip to Main Navigation
  • 7 - not used
  • 8 - Terms and Conditions
  • 9 - not used

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

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 using Firefox

View – Text Size – Increase

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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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 at the bottom of the page.

You can return to the graphical view using the High Graphics link.

Alternatively, you 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

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Links to External Sites

All links to external sites open in the same window and have the title "Link to external site". This site is not responsible for the content or accessibility of these referenced sites.

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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 screen reader setting for links

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 may use 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

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Validation of Accessibility

This website validated as XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant on 28th November 2007, 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.

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