Accessibility

The worldwide web can be a great enabler and source of freedom. However, for many people its usefulness is dictated by its accessibility. For the visually impaired, and Deaf and hard of hearing people as well as those with motor or cognitive disabilities we aim to ensure that their needs are addressed in all services provided through this web site.

Text only verion of the website

For increased accessibility you may wish to view the website in a stripped down form, omitting images and other rich media, and with a high contrast colour pallet. Please click the following link to enable this feature:

Enable ‘text-only’ mode.

Access Keys

Access keys let you navigate quickly around our website without requiring the use of a mouse. They can be used to jump directly to different pages or certain areas within a page. This website uses the following access keys:

0
Go to the Access Keys documentation page (ie, this page)
1
Go to the home page
2
Skip to the main content area of the current page
3
Go to the sitemap page
4
Focus on the main search box, if the current page has one
5
Enable ‘text-only’ mode
6, 7, 8, 9
These keys have different uses for different sections within the site. Please contact us for further information.
Using Access Keys in Internet Explorer
  1. Hold down the ‘ALT’ key and press the number of the access key.
  2. Release both keys and then press ‘ENTER’.
Using Access Keys in Firefox
  1. Hold down the ‘ALT’ and ‘SHIFT’ keys and press the number of the access key.

* Please note that some assistive technology tools such as the IBM HomePage Reader and WindowEyes already make use of the alt+[access key] combinations. As such, users of these tools will not be able to use these access keys.

Text Resizing

In most modern web browsers you can resize HTML text which can be a great aid to anyone with a visually impairment.

Resizing HTML text in Internet Explorer
  1. If you are using the keyboard to navigate press and hold the ‘Alt’ key.
  2. Open the ‘View’ menu with your mouse or by pressing ‘V’.
  3. Select the ‘Text Size’ option with your mouse or by pressing ‘X’.
  4. Choose your preferred text size with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing ‘Enter’.
  5. Alternatively you can resize the entire web page. Open the view menu as detailed above and select the ‘Zoom’ option with your mouse or by pressing ‘Z’. Choose your preferred zoom level with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing ‘Enter’.
  6. Note that you can also change the zoom level by pressing either ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’ or ‘Ctrl’ and ‘-’, and using ‘Ctrl’ and ‘0’ to return to the default zoom level.
Resizing HTML text in Firefox
  1. If you are using the keyboard to navigate press and hold the ‘Alt’ key.
  2. Open the ‘View’ menu with your mouse or by pressing ‘V’.
  3. Select the ‘Zoom’ option with your mouse or by pressing ‘Z’.
  4. By default Firefox zooms the entire web page, however within the zoom menu you can choose the ‘Zoom Text Only’ option with your mouse or by pressing ‘T’.
  5. Increase or decrease the text size by choosing ‘Zoom In’ or ‘Zoom Out’ with your mouse or by pressing ‘I’ or ‘O’.
  6. Alternatively you can press ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’ to increase the text size, ‘Ctrl’ and ‘-’ to decrease the text size, or ‘Ctrl’ and ‘0’ to return to the default text size.

* Please note that some text on this site is actually displayed as images and as a result will not automatically resize, however for the most part all main content text is resizable by our users.