Accessibility
Accessing information on our website
This website has been created with Accessibility in mind. Our aim is to ensure that everyone can access the information published on our website and that the site meets WAI AA standards.
The colour scheme has been carefully chosen. We've tested the colours to make sure that they meet World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines on background and foreground colour and brightness difference.
We have also provided enhanced readability, high contrast and large font style sheets to ensure an accessible experience for disabled users. To switch to these, go to top right hand side corner of the website and click on desired style sheet.
If there are other Accessibility features that we could add in to the site, or techniques that we could adopt, please contact us on 020 7492 2222 or Textphone 020 7242 8159.
In addition, the information below will help you in customizing your computer to provide you further with the most accessible web experience on our website.
Help with opening documents
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PDF documents
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Other types of file
Help with seeing our website
if the style sheets provided are not a sufficient help, here is some further information on adjusting your browser to make text larger or to change the colours. Help for:
- Internet Explorer browser
- Mozilla Firefox
Help with opening documents
This website links to documents and files in a number of formats. You may need special software to read some of these files. The links below enable you to download free software to open these files.
PDF files
To open a PDF file you have two options.
- You can download a program called Acrobat Reader and install it onto your computer. The program is available free of charge from the Adobe Acrobat site. Download Adobe reader
- The second option is to use an online PDF conversion tool. You can visit the Adobe Acrobat website, type in the address of a PDF file and get it to translate the file into a more readable format while you wait. Convert a PDF file online
Adobe publishes information on its website to help users get the most out of the accessibility features of Adobe PDF documents. Read information on accessibility on the Adobe website.
Other types of file
The links below will help you to download other types of document that may appear on our site
Help with seeing our website
Information on adjusting your browser to make the text larger or to change the colours.
Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser
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Changing Font size and style
1. Open the Tools menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+T.
2. Select the Internet Options option with the mouse or by pressing O.(see fig1, below)
3. Select the Accessibility button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+E.(see fig 2, below)
4. Check the "Ignore font sizes specified on web page" checkbox with the mouse or by pressing alt+Z.
5. Check the “Ignore font styles specified on web page” checkbox with the mouse or by pressing alt+S.
6. Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.
7. Open the View menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+V.
8. Select the Text Size option with the mouse or by pressing T.
9. Choose your preferred text size with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing Enter.
Fig 1 Internet Explorer Internet Options dialog box
Fig 2 Internet Explorer Accessibility dialog box
The text on our website should now have changed to reflect your choice.
1. Follow steps 1 to 3 above.
2. Check the “Ignore colors specified on Web pages” box or press Alt+C.
3. Open the Tools menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+T.
4. Select the Internet Options option with the mouse or by pressing O.(see fig 1, above)
5. Select the Colors button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+O.(see fig 3, below)
6. Choose to have your Windows colour scheme reflected by selecting the "Use Windows color scheme" option with the mouse or by pressing Alt+W.
OR
1. Select either the Text button with the mouse (or by pressing Alt+T), or the Background button with the mouse (or by pressing Alt+B).
2. Select the colour of your choice with the mouse or by using the arrow keys.
3. Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.
Fig 3 Internet Explorer Colors dialog box
More details on accessibility in Internet Explorer
Microsoft publishes detailed information on the accessibility features of the Internet Explorer 6 web browser and other Microsoft software.
Mozilla Firefox Browser
Help with adjusting the settings in your Firefox browser to make the screen easier to read.
- Increasing the size of the text
To do this in Firefox, go to the 'View menu', select 'Text Size' and then select 'Increase'. You can have the same effect by using the keyboard and press the keys 'Ctrl' and '+' at the same time.
- Changing the display on the screen
Firefox provides other ways in which you can fine-tune how a page displays on your screen.
For example you can change the background colours and choose which colours to have text, links and visited links displayed.
You can make these changes by:
1. Going to the 'Tools' menu at the top of the page
2. Selecting 'Options...' from that menu
3. Clicking the 'Font & Colors...' button
Fig 4 Mozilla Firefox Options dialog box
Fig 5 Mozilla Firefox Fonts and Colors dialog box
On the 'Font & colors' box you can over-ride the colours used by our website by ticking the boxes marked 'Always use my: Fonts' and 'Always use my: Colors'.
You can specify which colours you prefer text and links to be displayed in, and which background colour should show on the page.
You can also choose colours to be used for links your have previously visited and links when your mouse hovers over them.
More details on accessibility in Firefox
Firefox publishes detailed information on how to adjust the display of their browser.
Download the Mozilla Firefox browser.