• Website and government standard compliance
• Accessibility browser options
• Difficulty using a mouse
• Changing text size
• Screenreaders
• Hearing and visual content
• Accessibility tips for different programs
• More information and useful accessibility links

Website and government standard compliance

This website has been built to comply with all of the Priority 1 ('A') accessibility checkpoint across its web presence, as established in the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) web accessibility initiative (WAI). The WAI promotes usability and accessibility for people with disabilities. The W3C promotes good practice amongst the web community via initiatives like WAI Web Contact Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

The majority of the site's pages conform to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's 'AA' standard and we are working towards achieving this standard throughout the website. All new pages conform to 'AA' standards.

It is our aim to continue improving the level of accessibility so that we conform to the highest W3C 'Triple A' standard and the Ability Net/RNIB's See it right usability accreditation in the near future.

Accessibility browser options

• Microsoft Internet Explorer - Go to Tools, select Internet Options..., then Accessibility... and you can make changes to formatting and style sheets.
• Mozilla Firefox - Go to Tools, select Options, then Advanced and you can make changes to various Accessibility options.
  

Difficulty using a mouse

Most websites can be used without a traditional mouse, links can be selected and clicked using the keyboard.

If you find it difficult to use a mouse to navigate around the page, you can follow these steps as a substitute to using your mouse:

• Click on the TAB key on your keyboard. This will move your cursor to each of the navigation options / links on the screen.
• When you have found the link you want, press ENTER on your keyboard.
• You can also use the 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys on your keyboard to move the page to the area you want to read.

Changing text size

If you find the text on this site is too small or too large, you can change it easily using the A+ (increase size) and A- (decrease size) buttons at the top of this site's Home page (click here to go there).

Screenreaders

The pages on this site are designed to be used with screenreaders, so that visually impaired users can easily access the content and navigate the site and as a result every page has a set of easy access keys.

Hearing and visual content

This website is speech enabled - follow this link to download Browsealoud software to your PC. We are now also able to carry video content on the website, and we will be looking to expand the use of this feature over the coming months.

Accessibility tips for different programs

Accessibility tutorials for Microsoft products

Accessibility tips for using Adobe programs

More information and useful accessibility links

The following websites will have useful advice and information about web accessibility.

These links will take you to external websites - the council has no control over their content.

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• Guidelines for UK Government websites
• RNIB web access centre
• Disability Rights Commission
• My Web My Way Partnership (BBC)