Introduction
We have designed and developed our website to offer more accessiblity options and to help you find your way more easily around the site. We aim for our website to conform to World Wide Web Consortium accessibility standards, but there are some things you can do that may make your experience of using our site even better,please read below.
Site accessibility features
Resizable text
By default, text is set at the smallest font size, but you can resize the text on all pages to one of two larger fonts, using the font links at the top right of the screen:
- Above the yellow bar, top right, find the three different sized ‘A’s.
- Select the middle ‘A’ to get the next larger size, or the largest ‘A’ to get the largest available size.
- Select the smallest ‘A’ to revert to the smallest text.
If your browser has cookies enabled, when you next visit us the site will display at the text size you selected.
Customising your computer
AbilityNet and the BBC have developed a number of tutorials which tell you how to customise your computer to give you a better experience when using the web. For example, you can find out how to:
- change how information is shown on your screen, to get more on, or to see content more clearly
- change colours and fonts, a good idea if you have a visual impairment and need more contrast
- adapt the mouse, for example, to slow it down, make the pointer bigger, or if you’re left-handed
- change a variety of keyboard settings, including the rate at which the cursor blinks
Go to AbilityNet for more information, or My Web My Way to see the tutorials.
Using keyboard shortcuts
You can use keys on the keyboard to move around our website more quickly. These are called shortcuts, and the keys you use depend on your browser. Find information for the four main browsers by selecting:
- Internet Explorer version 5 shortcuts
- Internet Explorer version 6 shortcuts
- Internet Explorer version 7 shortcuts
- Firefox shortcuts
- Opera shortcuts
- Safari shortcuts
Useful links
You can download free software from the web, and find out about accessibility features for a variety of systems. Select the links below:
- www.abilitynet.org.uk – for information about customising your computer
- My Web My Way – for information and tutorials, developed by the BBC and AbilityNet, on customising your computer
- www.screenreader.net/ – for access to the award-winning free screen reader Thunder
- www.microsoft.com/enable/training/default.aspx – for details about the Microsoft accessibility wizard and how to use it
- www.apple.com/accessibility – for details about the Apple Macintosh accessibility features
- www.opera.com/features/access/ – for details about the Opera browser’s accessibility features
- www.accessfirefox.org/ – to enable accessibility features in Firefox and download extentions
Comments and feedback
If you have any comments or feedback about any of the features or content on our site we would love to hear what you have to say. Please visit our feedback page.