We are committed to making the information we publish on the Internet as accessible to as many users as possible.  We have already made changes to our website to make it more accessible, and are continuing to do so, but we recognise that we still have some way to go. 

Font colours, contrast and changing Font Sizes

The majority of the website is based on dark font colours against a white background, to ensure maximum contrast. 

The website has been designed so that you can alter the text size on most pages, however this may vary according to your browser.

• For Internet Explorer (IE)

1. Select "Tools" from the menu
2. From the list of options that appear, select "Internet Options"
3. Click on the "General" tab
4. Click on the "Accessibility" button
5. To change the text size select the checkbox "Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages"
6. To remove font and background colours select the checkbox "Ignore colours specified in Web pages"
7. Click "Ok"
8. Click "Ok"
9. Select "View" from the menu
10. From the list of options select "Text Size"
11. Then select your desired text size from the

• For Firefox
  1. Select "Tools" from the menu
  2. Choose "Content" from the panel
  3. Under the "Fonts and Colours" section select your desired font and size form the drop down boxes.
  4. Select "View" from the menu
  5. Select "Zoom"
  6. Click on "Zoom In" for the text to increas and "Zoom Out" for the text to decrease
  7. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl ++ for increase and Ctrl +- for decrease
• For Netscape
  1.  Select "Edit" from the menu
  2. Choose "Preferences"
  3. Open "Appearance"
  4. Click the "Fonts" category
  5. For "Encoding" make sure that "Western" is selected
  6. For "Size" select "18"
  7. Select "Arial" from the dropdown field located next to "Variable width font"
  8. Check that the "Fixed Width Font" box reads "Courier New", from "Size" select "18"
  9. To override the text size used by the website select "Use me default fonts overriding document specified fonts"
  10. Click "Ok"

 Browsealoud

Browsealoud enables you to listen to our website by reading out the pages aloud whilst highlighting words as it goes. To download your free copy visit the Browsealoud website. 

Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) 

A number of our documents and reports are in Microsoft Office Word and PDF format. To view our PDF documents and reports you will need Adobe Acrobat reader which is a free application and is available from the Adobe Website.

Frames

This site doesn’t use frames to ensure ease of use and to avoid confusion.

Images and Alternative text (alt text)

We try to avoid using unnecessary images to ensure a quick download time. Alt tags have been added to images to describe the content of a picture. 

Using tabs

You can use the Tab button to move around the screen rather than use the mouse.  By pressing the tab button, you will be moved to the next link or section on a page.  Once you’ve got to the link or area you want to access, press the return (or enter) button and it will take you into it.

How to get the most out of this site

For more information on this website please look at How to get the most out of this site.