• Accessibility

Accessibility

We aim to make this website accessible to all users, following certain standards and Government guidelines to ensure that this site can be used effectively and easily as possible by everyone.

Windows:   press ALT + AccessKey then ENTER

Macintosh: press Control + AccessKey.

• Access key 1 - Home
• Access key 3 - Site Map
• Access key 4 - Search
• Access key 5 - A-Z of Services
• Access key 8 - Disclaimer
• Access key 9 - Contact Us
• Access key 0 - Accessibilility
• Access key s - Skip navigation

Note: To use these keys

For the Windows-based platform: if the browser is Netscape/Mozilla etc, hold down the 'Alt' key and press the assigned key on the keyboard; if the browser is Internet Explorer, do the same as for Netscape, but also press the 'enter' key to navigate to a page.

For the Macintosh platform, hold down the left-hand 'Control' and press the assigned key on the keyboard (Control-1 navigates to the home page).

BrowseAloud

Speech enabling our web site provides an additional way of accessing content for people who find it hard to read.

Our website offers a link to BrowseAloud. This is a free tool that speech enables website content. It offers a practical website access service to people with reading difficulties and those who find it easier to listen to, rather than read the content of our website.

It assists in the navigations of our website for the following sections of the population:

• Those with low literacy and reading skills
• Those where English is not the first language
• Dyslexic people
• Those with mild visual impairment
• Browsealoud is free to download and users have control over the voice, word pronunciations and speech highlighting.
• Browsealoud FAQ

Help with PDFs

The downloadable documents available within this site are in Portable Document Format (often referred to as PDF). A standard adopted by governments and organisations worldwide, PDF is a reliable format for electronic document exchange that preserves document integrity so files can be viewed and printed on a variety of platforms. We chose to make all downloadable documents in this file format for data security and integrity reasons.

How can I view a PDF document?

In order to view a PDF document, you need free software called Adobe Acrobat Reader, created by the company called Adobe. However PDFs are not easily accessible to all users so Adobe has developed a method of converting PDF documents into HTML (normal web pages), a more accessible format for assistive technologies.

How do I convert a PDF document into HTML?

The URL (the web address) of a PDF document will appear in the web browser address bar when it is selected. Copy the url (normally looks like this: www.nameofsomething...) and then visit Adobe's website on the link below.

• http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html
  Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents

Once you have clicked on the link above, you will see an online form created by Adobe. Simply paste the URL into the box you will see and the contents of the PDF will be automatically converted to HTML - an ordinary web page; and in that form it should then be accessible.

There are further features and capabilities of Adobe products that enhance electronic document accessibility for people with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, and motor impairments. You can visit their website using the link below, where you will find this information and links to resources that help people with disabilities work more effectively with Adobe software.