Accessibility

We want our website to be as accessible to you as possible. To make our website easy to view, we've designed it in accordance with guidelines laid down by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).

User friendly design

We are always actively looking for ways to improve our website and make it easier to use, following principles laid out by the WAI and the RNIB. We also work to meet our own guidelines, which include:

• Designing the site for an 1024x768 view, in accordance with current statistics on screen resolution usage
• Using meaningful ALT text so there is a descriptive alternative for all images
• Using descriptive hyperlink text
• Avoiding the use of frames, which are difficult for special browsers to display
• Using an easier to read non-serif font type, size and colour
• Using an easy-to-see web colour scheme

We endeavour to make sure that our site has useful content that is laid out in an easy-to-navigate way, thus catering for people who use speech readers.

Change your browser settings

If you want to alter the way you view our website, from the size of text to the colour of hyperlinks, you can do so by using some of the options in your Internet Browser. To change settings on the latest version of Firefox or Internet Explorer, follow the instructions for your browser type and version below. These settings should work on most websites but they won't affect images on the screen. If you have problems changing your settings, use the Help menu in your browser toolbar.

Internet Explorer (IE.x) instructions

To permanently apply font and colour changes...

• On the browser Tools menu select 'Internet Options'
• On the General tab, select 'Accessibility'
• Click on the three boxes to show ticks
• Click 'OK' to enlarge text
• On the browser Tools menu select 'Internet Options'
• On the General tab, select 'Accessibility'
• Tick the 'Ignore font sizes specified on web pages' check box
• Click 'OK'
• On the browser menu select 'View'
• Click 'Text size'
• Choose the size of text

To change text and background color...

• On the browser Tools menu select 'Internet Options'
• On the General tab, select 'Colour'
• Deselect the 'Use Windows colours' tick box
• Select the box next to 'Text' and choose a colour
• Click 'OK'
• Select the box next to 'Background' and choose a colour
• Click 'OK'

To prevent graphics and images appearing...

• On the browser Tools menu select 'Internet Options'
• On the Advanced tab, scroll down to the 'Multimedia' heading
• Deselect the graphics options 'Animations', 'Videos', 'Pictures' and 'Images' by clicking on the boxes to remove the ticks
• Click 'Apply' then 'OK'

To change the size of the window...

• On the browser View menu select 'Full screen' or press F11.

To change the colour of links displayed on a screen...

• On the browser Tools menu select 'Internet Options'
• On the General tab, select 'Accessibility'
• Click on 'Select ignore colours specified on Web pages' (should contain a tick)
• Click 'OK'
• Select 'General' tab and click on 'Colours'
• Turn off the 'Use hover colours' tick box (should not contain a tick)
  lect 'Visited' and choose the colour that suits you best, click 'OK'
• Select 'Not Visited' and choose the colour that suits you best, click 'OK'
• Select 'OK' for 'Colours'
• Select 'OK' for 'Internet Options'
  If you have any problems changing your browser settings, use the Help menu in your browser toolbar.

Firefox (V2.x) instructions

To enlarge text...

• Click on 'View' in the main toolbar and select 'Text Size' from the options
• Click on the increase and decrease options to select your optimum text size

To remove formatting on a page...

• Click on 'View' in the main toolbar and select 'Page Style' from the options
• Click on ‘No Style’ to remove all page formatting and create a text based page
• To switch back to the original style, select ‘Basic Page Style’