Accessibility
We’ve built our site with the aim of making it as accessible and as usable as possible. It is intended to conform to Priority Level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
This page lists some of the features used to make the site easier to use and provides links to other resources.
Accessibility features
Skip to functions
‘Skip to’ functions provide links at the top of every page which allow users accessing this site with no styling to ‘skip’ to different sections within each page.
Skip functions available on this site:
- Skip to main navigation
- Skip to page content
- Skip to search
Access keys
Access keys provide keyboard shortcuts to help users navigate this site using the keyboard.
This website uses a subset of the UK Government Access Key system:
1 = Home page
3 = Site map
4 = Search
5 = Frequently asked questions
6 = Using this site
8 = Terms and conditions
9 = Contact us
To use the access keys:
If you use Internet Explorer with Windows
- Press and hold the 'Alt' key
- Press the required letter
- Release the keys and press the 'ENTER' key
If you use Netscape Navigator or Firefox with Windows
- Press and hold the 'Alt' key
- Press the required letter
If you use Internet Explorer with a Mac
- Press and hold the ‘ Ctrl’ key
- Press the required letter
- Release the keys and press the 'ENTER' key
If you use Netscape 6 or Firefox with a Mac
- Press and hold the ‘ Ctrl’ key
- Press the required letter
Access keys are not supported by:
- Internet Explorer 4.5 for Mac
- Netscape earlier versions than 6
Adapting your screen
Resizing text
You can enlarge the text on this site by using the links in the footer of the page. This will change the text size on this site only. If you want to change the text size on all sites:
Using Internet Explorer:
- Click on the ‘View’ drop down menu
- Click on ‘Text size’
- Choose your preferred text size from the list
If the text is still not big enough:
- Click on the ‘Tools drop down menu
- Click on ‘Internet options’
- In the ‘General’ tab click on ‘Accessibility’
- Select ‘Ignore font sizes on web pages’
- Click ‘OK’, then ‘OK’
- You should now be able to enlarge the text further using the method above
Using Netscape 6 or Firefox:
- Click on the ‘View’ drop down menu
- Click on ‘Text size’
- Choose your preferred text size from the list
Changing the text colour
Microsoft Internet Explorer - versions 5 and 6:
- Select Tools from the menu bar at the top of your window
- From the options which appear, select Internet options
- Click the General tab
- Click the button marked Accessibility
- To remove background and font colours, tick the checkbox labelled ‘Ignore colours’ specified on web pages
- Click on ‘Colours’
- You can choose your own preferred colours for text, page background and links
Adapting your computer
This site gives detailed information on how to adapt your computer to your own preferences: My computer, my way . There’s good information on this BBC site too.
Standards compliance
This site has been built to standards:
Some tables have been used within the site for data presentation.
