We are committed to providing a website that's accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines.
This website endeavours to conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, which is the recognised standard for digital accessibility in the UK. These guidelines help ensure content is accessible and usable for everyone.
Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly for all people. This site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards for HTML and CSS. The site displays correctly in current browsers and using standards compliant HTML/CSS code means any future browsers will also display it correctly.
Whilst we strive to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it’s not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.
We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility.
By using an up-to-date browser (the program you use to access the internet) you will have access to a much richer set of options to aid you as you navigate your way around this site. The standard browsers we would recommend are below with links to install each of them:
Once installed, each will bring its own selection of accessibility options and may allow further options via the use of plug-ins. For more details see the Accessibility page for each one:
Different browsers use different keystrokes to activate access key shortcuts, as shown below:
Windows Firefox or Chrome
Internet Explorer or Edge
NOTE: For Internet Explorer you will need to press Enter after using the shortcut
Safari
Mac OS Safari
Firefox or Chrome
Most modern browsers all share the most common accessibility tools, here is a list of useful features:
Incremental Search
Incremental search allows you to progressively search a web page for a particular word or phrase on a page. To enable this on your browser, press and hold Ctrl/Command and then tap F. This will open a box to type your search into. As you type, the matches will be highlighted on the page for you.
Spatial Navigation
Hitting tab will jump you to each of the items you can interact with on any page. Holding the SHIFT key and then pressing tab will take you to the previous item.
Caret Navigation (Internet Explorer and Firefox only)
Instead of using a mouse to select text and move around within a webpage, you can use standard navigation keys on your keyboard: Home, End, Page Up, Page Down & the arrow keys. This feature is named after the caret, or cursor, that appears when you edit a document.
To turn this feature on, press the F7 key at the top of your keyboard and choose whether to enable the caret on the tab you are viewing or all your tabs.
Space bar
Pressing the space bar on a web page will move the page you are viewing down to the next visible part of the page.
Text fonts
Depending on your browser, you can override all fonts on the site to one that is easier for you to read. Options can be found in your browser's settings/preferences.
Enlarge your view
You can activate the browser zoom via these keyboard shortcuts.
To zoom your entire computer screen
Apple Mac and Windows operating system both contain options to enlarge your view of your screen:
Make your computer read the site aloud
This website has been built with screen readers in mind. Menus, pictures and inputs will have the correct tags and mark up to compliment your chosen screen reader.
We have tested with following tools:
Control your computer with your voice
Apple Mac and Windows operating systems both provide ways to control your computer with voice recognition:
Third party voice recognition software is available too.
We are committed to providing you access to our most valuable resources. If you do spot anything which doesn't look quite right or have any suggestions for how we might improve our services, then please let us know.
