Website accessibility

The site is laid out to make finding information easy and intuitive. If you have any problems finding what you require, try using the keyword search located near the top right of every page

Scaling text

Scaling text

If you have trouble reading the text on the site, you can increase (or decrease) the size using your browser. Here is how you do it in each of the three main browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Hold down the Alt key and press V
  • Then press X
  • Select one of the pre-set text sizes by using either Up Arrow or Down Arrow key and pressing Return / Enter
Firefox
  • Increase text size - whilst holding down the Control key, press +
  • Decrease text size - whilst holding down the Control key, press -
Opera
  • Increase text size - whilst holding down the Shift key, press +
  • Decrease text size - whilst holding down the Shift key, press -

Changing colours

Changing the site's background colour can be particularly useful if you rely on magnification technology – as white can produce an uncomfortable glare.

It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site. You can do both by changing preferences in your browser:

Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Go to the Tools menu
  • Select Internet Options then accessibility
  • Put a tick in the box next to "Ignore colours specified on web pages"
  • Select OK
  • Select Colours
  • Ensure no tick in the box next to "Use windows colours"
  • Use Text and Background colour selectors
  • Confirm colours OK
  • Confirm options OK
Firefox
  • Go to the Tools menu and select Options
  • Within options select Content then Colours
  • Ensure no tick in the box next to "Allow pages to choose their own colours"
  • Ensure no tick in the box next to "Use system colours"
  • Use Text and Background colour selectors
  • Confirm colours OK
  • Confirm options OK
  • Use function key F5 to refresh the screen
Opera
  • Tools menu, Preferences and selecting web pages or;
  • View menu, Style and selecting user mode
  • We recommend that you experiment with the settings to get the effect that makes it easiest for you to read the information.
  • Opening documents

Most documents on our website are PDFs.

You can download PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don’t already have this, you can download the latest version from the Adobe website.

If you use screen reader software (for example an audio-enabled web browser), and it is not compatible with Adobe Reader, Adobe provide a free online tool to convert the content of PDF files to text – so they can be understood by most screen reader applications. You can also download this from their website.

A small number of documents may not be in PDF format. If you can’t open these (or if there is a problem with any of the PDFs), please just call us on 0330 123 2000 and we will arrange for the information to be sent out to you.