We are committed to making our online information accessible to all visitors and are striving to adhere to accessibility guidelines. Our efforts include:
- Maintaining a standard layout and navigation structure throughout
- Using headings, paragraphs, lists and other HTML (HyperText Markup Language) to create a logical document structure
- Allowing visitors to resize all text using their browser settings
- Using plain backgrounds to improve the readability of all text
- Using foreground and background colour combinations which have sufficient contrast and are not known to cause problems to those with visual impairments
- Using alt attributes and/or titles on all images where appropriate, and ensuring that all alt and title attributes are meaningful
- Designing layouts to work satisfactorily over a range of screen resolutions
- Ensuring all hyperlinks use descriptive and meaningful text
- Avoiding short-hand language such as 'Click here'
- Providing internal anchors for visitors using screen readers or similar technology
- Providing access keys to allow keyboard navigation to the main areas of the site
- Always providing an alternative to scripts or other controls which rely on client device capability
- Using plain English
- Using a written style that is straightforward and understandable
We are always trying to improve our website. If you have any comments on our accessibility policy, or suggestions about how to improve the site please contact us using the details below.
Resizing the text
To increase the text size:
Internet Explorer: View > Text size
Firefox: View > Text size
Opera: File > Preferences > Fonts > Minimum font size (pixels)
You can also resize the text by scrolling with the wheel of your mouse whilst holding down the control key.
How to use the keys:
Internet Explorer - Alt + access key number/alpha character and Enter
Netscape, Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox - Alt + access key number/alpha character
Opera - Shift + Esc followed by access key number/alpha character
Macs - Ctrl + access key number/alpha character
PDFs
The downloadable documents available on this site are in Portable Document Format (PDF). This is a standard used by governments and other organisations worldwide. A PDF is a reliable format for electronic document exchange that ensures that documents can be viewed and printed on a variety of platforms. We are working towards publishing all downloadable documents in this file format for data security and integrity reasons.
To view PDF documents, you need a programme which can read this format, eg Adobe® Reader® software. If you do not have Adobe Reader, you can download it for free from the Adobe website using the link in the right hand panel of this page.
Screen settings
This website has been designed for a screen resolution of 1024 x 768. To get the best from this site please alter your screen settings to this specification. The resolution is the number of pixels or dots in an image.
If you are viewing this website on a lower resolution screen such as 1024 x 768 pixels, the text and images will look larger, and horizontal scroll bars will appear.
If you are using a screen resolution higher than 1024 x 768 the text and images will look very small.
Browser compatibility
This website has been designed to be compatible with the following browser types and versions:
- IE6 >
- IE7 >
- Firefox 1.0 >
- Opera 9 >
- Safari 2 >