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Accessibility

We hope that you’re not having any difficulty using this website. However, if you do have difficulty viewing the site, there are things you can do.

You can change some of the options in your Internet browser (at the top of this window), and using the latest version of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox you will be able to:

  • Alter the size and colour of most text (but not images)
  • Alter the background colour (black text on a yellow background gives the most contrast)
  • Alter the line length, by changing the size and shape of your browser window
  • Override the colour schemes of this website and others with your preferred settings

Setting up your browser

All our suggestions to improve the accessibility of web pages will apply to every site you visit. Please note that they won’t affect images on the screen.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

To apply permanently the font and colour changes below:

  1. In the View → Tools menu, click Internet Options
  2. In the General tab, select Accessibility
  3. Click the three boxes to show ticks.

Changing the font

Using a sans serif font (such as Verdana), rather than a serif font (such as Times New Roman) can make text easier to read.

  1. In the View → Tools menu, click Internet Options
  2. In the General tab, click Fonts
  3. In the Proportional and Fixed-width font lists, select the fonts you would like to use.

Displaying text larger or smaller

  1. In the View → Tools menu, click Internet Options
  2. In the General tab, click Fonts
  3. Select the font size you would like.

Changing text and background colour

Website authors and designers often specify particular fonts, typefaces and background colours for their pages, and the combinations can sometimes make the text difficult to read. You can override these settings by choosing your own preferred, clearer colour scheme – black text on a yellow background gives the most contrast:

  1. On the View → Tools menu, click Internet Options
  2. On the General tab, click Colors
  3. click on the tick box labelled Use Windows Colors
  4. click Text, and select the colour you want. Click OK.
  5. click Background, and select the colour you want to use. Click OK

To stop images from appearing on web pages

  1. In the View → Tools menu, click Internet Options
  2. In the Advanced tab, scroll down to Multimedia
  3. Click on Show pictures to remove the tick
  4. Click on Apply, and then click on OK.

To change the size of the window

  • Click Full Screen on the toolbar.

There are more options to make websites easier to read, such as removing animation and expanding text. To look at the other options:

  1. In the View → Tools menu, click Internet Options
  2. Select the Advanced tab
  3. Choose the options you would like

Mozilla Firefox

To permanently apply the font and colour changes below:

  1. On the Tools menu → click Options
  2. On the Content tab, under fonts & colors → click Advanced
  3. Untick “Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above”
  4. Untick “Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above”

Changing the font

Using a sans serif font (such as Arial), rather than a serif font (such as Times New Roman) can make text easier to read.

  1. Click Options on the Tools menu
  2. Click Advanced on the Content tab, under fonts & colors
  3. In the Serif and Sans Serif font lists select the fonts you would like to use.

Displaying text larger or smaller

  1. Click Options on the Tools menu
  2. Click Advanced on the Content tab, under fonts & colors
  3. Select the font size you would like. For both proportional and monospace.

Changing text and background colour

Website authors and designers often specify particular fonts, typefaces and background colours for their pages, and the combinations can sometimes make the text difficult to read. You can override these settings by choosing your own preferred, clearer colour scheme – black text on a yellow background gives the most contrast:

  1. Click Options on the Tools menu
  2. Click Colours on the Content tab, under fonts & colors
  3. Click the colour swatch to the right of “Text”, and select a colour
  4. Click the colour swatch to the right of “Background”, and select a colour

To close images on web pages

  1. Click Options on the Tools menu
  2. Untick Load Images in the Content tab → click on ‘OK’

To change the size of the window

  1. Click the View menu
  2. Select Full Screen

If you would like to download and use Firefox please click on this link and follow the instructions.

More accessibility information for Firefox can be found at:
Accessibility information for Firefox at AccessFirefox.com
Accessibility instructions for Firefox at MozillaZine

If you have any problems changing any of the above settings, please click the Help menu on the browser toolbar. Also, if your browser has different options to the above, look at the Help menu for specific instructions.