Accessibility

We have tried to make this website easily to use for people of all abilities and disabilities.

It meets all the government requirements around disability but maintaining an accessible website is an ongoing process and we are continually working to offer a user friendly experience. If you have any problems using this website, or want to contact us with any suggestions about how we could improve things, please contact the web team.

To assist with website accessibility we offer:

Navigation assistance: keyboard or mouse?

If you have restricted mobility or wish to avoid repetitive strain injury, you may find it useful to use your keyboard instead of your mouse to get around our website.

By using the Tab and Enter keys on your keyboard, it is possible to navigate and access all areas of our website.

The Tab key allows you to move and browse amongst the menus and links displayed on each page, and pressing Enter will activate your request for a particular menu or link.

The arrow keys on the keyboard will enable you to move up or down the page or from left to right.

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Changing text size

Please click on the 'large text' or 'normal text' button at the top of this website to enlarge or reduce the text size - this will require you to set a cookie to remember your chosen setting.

There are two text sizes available ('normal' or 'large'), choose your desired size and this will automatically change the size of wording in our website.

Alternatively to increase or decrease font size by zooming the whole webpages in or out you can do a 'Ctrl +' or 'Ctrl -' on the keyboard, or you can do the same using your mouse by holding down the 'Ctrl' key on the keyboard and using your mouse 'scroll' wheel. To reset the screen to normal do a 'Ctrl 0' on the keyboard.

See also: Useful tips for accessing information (below)

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Changing screen contrast

Please click on the 'high contrast' or 'normal contrast' button at the top of this website to toggle between the two available screen contrast settings  - this will require you to set a cookie to remember your chosen setting.

See also: Useful tips for accessing information (below)

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Useful tips for accessing information

Throughout our website we use PDF (Portable Document Format) documents which are accessed by clicking on appropriate document links.

To view a PDF, you may need to download Acrobat Reader first. This is a free software package and is available from the Adobe Reader download website.

The BBC's 'My Web My Way' website gives very easy to follow step by step instructions on how to adjust your browser (and computer) to suit your own particular needs as does the RNIB website. Other sites you may find of interest include:

You can see a short movie (2 minutes 42 seconds) by Accessify about how to change the text size settings in your browser on the You Tube website.

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BrowseAloud

As part of our efforts to make our website accessible to all we are pleased to announce that our web site is speech-enabled with the BrowseAloud free to download software. This will assist those with reading difficulties, literacy problems, mild vision difficulties and where English is not their first language.

Our website can be speech enabled on demand using the free BrowseAloud software.

Click the BrowseAloud link below to reach their download site and follow the prompts to download and install the program.

When BrowseAloud is installed you will see a blue concentric circles icon at the bottom right hand corner of your screen to tell you that BrowseAloud is loaded and ready on your computer.

To switch off BrowseAloud right mouse click on the same circles at the bottom right of your screen and switch off the 'automatically speak text when pointer hovers over text' option.

When you roll your mouse over some text within the website the words will be instantly turned into speech.

More information can be found at:

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