Accessibility
To be accessible, our website must be as easy to use and understand for as many visitors as possible. We strive to ensure accessibility by complying with or exceeding the recommendations of appropriate industry standards and applicable legislation, and we are committed to continually reviewing and improving our levels of compliance.
Standards Compliance
Our website has been designed to meet the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Content Accessibility Guidelines set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It fully complies with the W3C XHTML 1.0 Standard and will validate accordingly.
Access Keys
Below is a list of "access keys". These are keyboard shortcuts that link directly to the main sections of the site.
To navigate using the access keys please press and hold the 'alt' key ('ctrl' key on Macs) and then press the required number (for Firefox please hold ‘alt’ and ‘shift’ and press the required number). If using Internet Explorer please press Enter to confirm selection.
0 Go to Accessibility / Access Key documentation page
1 Skip to main content of current page (for non-visual browsers)
2 Homepage
3 About Us
4 Latest News
5 Frequently Asked Questions
6 Contact Us
Font Size Control
This website offers the option for it to be viewed in different text sizes. Two icons allow you to select the different size text and are on each page at the top. The font-size will increase or decrease incrementally as you click one of the icons.
The font size tool uses javascript so you need to enable it if you want to change your font size.
You can also alter the size of the screen fonts using the tools built in to most modern web browsers:
- Internet Explorer (all Windows versions): Go to the 'View' menu, 'Text Size', and select your desired setting. The default is medium. Alternatively, if you have a mouse with a wheel you can hold the CTRL key on your keyboard whilst scrolling up or down with the wheel to alter the text size.
- Internet Explorer (Mac): Go to the View menu and use the 'Text Zoom' feature.
- Apple Safari: Go the 'View' menu and use the 'Make Text Bigger' and 'Make Text Smaller' menu items. Alternatively you can use the option key with + or - to increase or decrease the text size.
- Mozilla Firefox (Mac and PC): Go to the 'View' menu and either click the 'Increase Text Size' or 'Decrease Text Size' menu items, or alternatively you can use the CTRL key with the plus or minus to increase or decrease the size.
- Google Chrome: Hold down the < CTRL> and click the "+" or "-"key to increase or decrease font size as required. To restore font size to default use <CTRL> + 0.
Browsers
In order to provide good accessibility some compromises have unfortunately had to be made in terms of full support for certain older browsers which do not support web standards, or support them unreliably or unpredictably. We strongly recommend that you use only the following browsers:
Windows:
- Internet Explorer 6 or above. Latest version is recommended, and available at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp. Most people have this on their Windows-based PCs already. If you don't have Internet Explorer, or if you have a version earlier than version 6, you should consider obtaining one of the Mozilla browsers (see below) instead, because they are small and quick to download.
- Mozilla Firefox 2 or above. Latest version is available at www.mozilla.org
- Opera 9 or above. Latest version is available at www.opera.com
Apple Mac:
- Apple Safari version 2 or above - available at www.apple.com/safari
- Mozilla Firefox - available at www.mozilla.org
Linux:
- Mozilla Firefox - available at www.mozilla.org
We appreciate that it might not seem easy or desirable to have constantly to upgrade your browser! If you do have an older browser, or one not on the list above, and you are unable or unwilling to change it, rest assured you will still be able to use the site, but you will not have the best viewing experience. Additionally most accessibility enhancements will not be available to you. We therefore again strongly recommend you upgrade your browser.
