Accessibility

We recognise that our websites are used by a diverse audience in every sense and strive to ensure that the levels of accessibility we achieve fulfill the needs of our users. Many of our users have disabilities, which affect their experience of using the Internet and we strive to make their experience of our websites as positive as possible.

All our websites undergo thorough testing using both automated tools and manual checking because we believe that both methods have strengths and weaknesses. This testing is repeated at regular intervals and users are encouraged to feedback on current content and design. We also run user advisory groups, part of whose role is to tell us about their experience of using our websites.

Colour is an important part of design and we use it with care to provide visual cues and to ease navigation. Our colour palette has been chosen with this in mind and we implement this with particular reference to contrast.

At all times we strive to provide clear and consistent navigation, with access keys and meaningful descriptions of pages and images.

We recommend using:

Opera (8x / 9x) ), Mozilla Firefox (1.5x) or IE 6.0, 5.5 ) on PC and Safari 1.3 and Opera on Apple Mac.

Access Keys

Access Keys allow you to access the main navigation elements by using your keyboard. If you are using Windows on a PC, press ALT + access key, then enter/return. If you are using a Macintosh press Control + access key, then enter/return.

Horizontal Top bar access keys:

Alt + a for About us
Alt + s for Accessibility (this page)
Alt + d for Contact us page
Alt + f for Sitemap page

Vertical menu bar on Home page:

Alt + 1
Alt + 2
Alt + 3
Alt + 4
Alt + 5
.........
for each item from top to bottom

Vertical menu bar on some division page:

Alt + 1
Alt + 2
Alt + 3
Alt + 4
Alt + 5
.........

Alt + 9
Alt + 0
Alt + q
Alt + w
Alt + e
Alt + r
Alt + t
........
for each item from top to bottom. When the items are greater than 10 - access keys next to other are use (q, w, e, r, t,y, u, i, o, p....)
Alt + h - for Home page.

Sitemap
sitemap

The site map is fully accessible by using the TAB key to select the various pages. Pressing the ENTER / RETURN key then opens the selected page.

 

 

 

 

 

Other useful ways to navigate back and forth though the pages is by holding the CTRL key + left arrow for BACK and the right arrow for FORWARD.

Useful links for navigation with browsers (will pop-up new page):
Opera Accessibility
http://www.opera.com/features/access/

Mouse Gestures in Opera
http://www.opera.com/features/mouse/

Keyboard Shortcuts in Opera
http://www.opera.com/features/keyboard/

Opera Voice Tips
http://www.opera.com/voice/

Mozilla Keyboard Shortcuts
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keyboard_Shortcuts

Mouse Tips for Mozilla
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mouse_Tips

Colours

The site is separated by several colour shemes:

Colour shemes

Contrast & Font Size

By clicking on the icons in the botton-left corner you can control the background colour and font size.
Another way to change the font size (global) is to hold the CTRL key on the PC,or Opt key on Mac and to move scroll wheel on the mouse.

sw Switch to default contrast and text size

sw2 Switch to white background and lager font size

Voice

Voice commands are available for Opera 8x / 9x.

How to use voice and speak commands:

  1. Enable the Voice option by selecting "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Advanced" > "Voice" and then enable voice.
  2. After enabling the option, you will be asked to confirm that you want to install the voice libraries. Select confirm. Voice is now available.
  3. To initiate a voice command, click the "Voice" button on the View toolbar, or press the Scroll Lock key. Then say the command, for example, "Opera reload". After issuing the command, let go of the button.
  4. A useful command to start with is "speak", which will make Opera read any selected text to you. Try it out by highlighting the text, holding the Voice button, and saying "Opera speak".
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