Using this Site

We are committed to making our site and its content available to everyone including those with visual impairment and other disabilities that make accessing the internet difficult. To achieve this we have followed a number of key guidelines, particularly the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. The following information details how to use this site and what measures we have put in place to make it as accessible as possible.

Access Keys

Access keys can be used on this site to skip directly to the important content from any page. The following UK government standard access keys are in place throughout this site:

0 - Accessibility information and Access Keys (this page)
1 - Home page
3 - Site map
8 - Terms and Conditions
9 - Contact details
S - Skip navigation - jumps focus directly to the start of the actual page content within the existing page

Access keys work differently in different browsers. Below is a list of browsers supported by this site and how to use access keys in each:

Internet Explorer(PC) - Hold down the 'Alt' key and press the Access Key you require. release both buttons and press 'Enter'.
Firefox(PC) - Hold down 'Alt' and 'Shift' and press the Access Key you require.
Netscape(PC) - Hold down the 'Alt' key and press the Access Key you require.
Opera(PC and Mac) - Hold down 'Shift' and press 'Esc', release both buttons and press the Access Key you require.
Firefox, Safari & Netscape(Mac) - Hold down the 'Ctrl' key and press the Access Key you require.

Enlarging site content

Most browsers include controls to make the text or entire site larger making it easier to read for visually impaired users. Below is a list of browsers supported by this site and how to enlarge the site content in each:

The following browsers enlarge the entire site content:
Internet Explorer 7(PC) - Hold down the 'Ctrl' key and use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to zoom the entire site content in and out.
Opera(PC and Mac) - Hold down 'Shift' and use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to zoom the entire site content in and out.

The following browsers only enlarge text based content:
Firefox & Netscape(PC) - Hold down the 'Ctrl' key and use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to enlarge or decrease any text based content.
Firefox, Safari & Netscape(Mac) - Hold down the 'Apple' key and use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to enlarge or decrease any text based content.

Overriding layout and colour information

The layout, colours and any decorative graphical elements used in this site are controlled by stylesheets. By controlling the content in this way users can disable the style sheets to view the basic site content. All content is designed to work and display in a useable way when style sheets are disabled, defaulting the text content to black on a white background.

Most browsers allow users to apply there own custom settings and/or style sheets to pages. All pages in this site work with custom stylesheets. For more information on applying your own stylesheets please refer to your browsers help files.

Supporting assistive technologies such as screen readers

We have put a lot of thought into the structure of the pages on this site to make them easily readable by common screen readers such as Jaws and WindowEyes. Measures implemented in this site include; written descriptions for all images, page text hierarchy correctly marked up, all menus included as lists, tables are not used for layout purposes, all form elements are labeled and all text links make sense when taken out of context.