Website Accessibility

We are aiming to make this website accessible by following certain standards and Government guidelines to ensure that it can be used by everyone.

This site has been designed to comply with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessiblity Initiative AAA standard.  You can read more about this standard on the World Wide Web Consortium Website. 

If you would like to discuss our approach to accessbility on the site, make a comment or pass on any suggestions, please feel free to contact us.

Access Keys

 

The following Government Recommended Access Keys (keyboard shortcuts) are available from every page on this site.

 

Access Key	Description
1	Home Page
2	What's New
3	Site Map
4	Search
5	Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
6	Help
7	Contact Us
8	Terms and Conditions
9	Contact Us
0	Access Key Details
S	#Skip_Navigation

• Windows - press ALT + AccessKey then ENTER
• Macintosh - press Control + AccessKey
• Users of the Opera web browser should press Shift-Esc rather than ALT    

Text Size

 

If the text on this website is too small or too large for you to read comfortably, you can change its size via your browser.

If you need help to do this read our guide to changing text size which describes how to change the text size in all major browsers.

 

External Links

 

We are moving away from opening external links in a new window. While opening a link in a new window may appear to be the best way of linking to an external site, recent research (supported by the W3C) has shown that opening new windows can be more disorientating.

 

As a result, we have taken the decision to open external links in the current browser window.

  

Reading PDFs Out Loud

The Adobe Acrobat Read Out Loud Menu - Click for Larger Image

 

Adobe Acrobat Documents (PDFs) can be read out loud by your computer if you have version 6.0 or above of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. To read a document out loud select 'View' from the menu followed by 'Read Out Loud'. The 'Read Out Loud' menu has the following four options which can also be accessed via shortcut keys:

 

Menu Option                          Keyboard Shortcut

Read this page only                 Shift+Control+V

Read to end of document         Shift+Control+B

Pause                                   Shift+Control+C

Stop                                     Shift+Control+E