Accessibility and usability

We have aimed to make this website as accessible and usable as possible for all users. We have included a variety of functions: a dictionary facility for definitions of terms we’ve used; higher visibility to enable users to view text on a yellow background; increase text size and a search facility.

This website has been designed to meet the requirements of W3C, Web Accessibility Initiative the international standard for web accessibility to individuals with disabilities. If you experience any problems or barriers when using this website we welcome your feedback.

Changing text size
If you find the text size is too small for you to read or have a visual impairment, you may want to change the size of the text to make it more comfortable. You can do this using the option on the top left hand side of this website. To increase the size of online text:

• Windows Internet Explorer - click on ‘View’ along the internet toolbar, select ‘Text size’ and change it to the largest setting.
• Safari – click on ‘View’ and select the ‘Make Text Bigger’ option.

Access Keys
We have not included access keys as they can be problematic because users use different operating systems.

Screen readers and speech browsers
This website has been designed to be read by screen readers and speech browsers. For example, all our main images and links have Alt tags to make them user friendly for screen readers. If you have difficulty reading text online you can download the speech browser, browsealoud programme which will read the website out loud. This is useful for those with literacy e.g. dyslexia or visual impairments.

PDF documents
If you are having problems downloading PDF documents you can get the free Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website. If you want to rotate the PDF so you can read it online, select the ‘View’ option on the toolbar, select ‘Rotate view’ and click on ‘Rotate Clockwise’ until it is lined up.

Non broadband users
If you do not have broadband you may find a delay when navigating the website. It may help to switch images off by selecting ‘Tools’ on the toolbar and select ‘Internet Options’. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab and under ‘Settings: Multimedia’ turn the ‘Show pictures’ setting off by deselecting the tick in the box.