Accessibility Disclaimer

What is accessibility?
The website and Accessibility Standards
Instructions for Microsoft Internet Explorer users
Instructions for Netscape Navigator users
Instructions for Macintosh users
Alternative ways to view Adobe Acrobat documents
Navigate the site with keys


What is accessibility?
There are different things you can do to change the look of this site to make it easier for you to read. You can make the text bigger and change the colours if you like or you can access the site using a screen reader or magnifier.

This section gives you instructions on how to do this. The instructions are different for the two main types of browser, Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The help facility on the toolbar of the browsers also contain information to assist you.

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The website and Accessibility Standards
The website strives to achieve a high standard of accessibility throughout. This means that you can:

• Browse the site fully without a mouse
• Browse the site fully using screen reader technology
• Browse the site fully with scripting turned off
• Change the text size, colour and font
• Change the background colours
• View the site with or without images

The site complies with Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - Level A accessibility guidelines, a self-certification badge which we are proud to display. For more information please see http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG1A-Conformance.

We are committed to a programme of constant vigilance performing a review of our conformance standards every three months.

Whilst every step is taken to ensure that the site is accessible to all users, we accept that we may not be able to get it right all of the time. If you or anyone you know experiences any difficulty accessing the site, then please let us know and we will do our best to rectify this.

Contact: ndsenquiries@coi.gsi.gov.uk
For more information about using the site please see our Help section
For more information about W3C please visit: www.w3.org

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Instructions for Microsoft Internet Explorer users
To change the font and colour settings you must firstly:

Select Internet Options from the View OR the Tools menu - this will
depend on your browser version.
Select the Accessibility Option and click the three boxes displayed
under formatting, so that they are now showing ticks.

If you want to change the type of text:

Select Internet Options from the View OR the Tools menu depending
on your browser.
Click on the Fonts button, choose your font from the drop-down
menu under Web page font and click the OK button. Arial is one of the
easiest fonts to read.

If you want to change the size of the text:

Select Internet Options from the View OR the Tools menu depending
on your browser.
Click on the Accessibility button.
Click the Ignore fonts now showing on web pages box so that it now
shows a tick.
Click OK.
Click OK again to close Internet Options.
Select the View option from the Menubar.
Select the Text Size option, Choose your preferred text size.

If you want to change the colour of the text or the background:

Select Internet Options from the View OR the Tools menu depending
on your browser.
Click on the Colours button and untick the box next to Use Windows
colours.
To change the colour of the text, click on the button to the right of
Text ,choose your colour from the palette and click OK.
To change the colour of the background, click on the button to the
right of Background, choose your colour from the palette and click OK.

If you want to remove the images:

Select Internet Options from the View OR the Tools menu depending
on your browser.
Select the Advanced tab at the top right hand corner of the box.
Scroll down to the Multimedia heading.
Untick the box next to Show Pictures.
Click on the Apply button and then click on the OK button.

For more information visit the Microsoft Help and Support site at:
http://support.microsoft.com/

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Instructions for Netscape Navigator users
To change your browser settings, you must firstly:

Select Edit from the Menu Bar.
Select Preferences. You now have the option to make various
changes.
Select Appearance.
Select Font. You can alter the Variable and Fixed width Font to your
preferred option.

If you want to change the colour of the text or the background:

Select Appearance.
Select Colours.
Select Text, choose your preferred colour and click on the OK button.
Select Background, choose your preferred colour and click on the OK
button.
Click OK again to close the Preferences option.

If you want to remove the images:

Select the Edit option from the Menu Bar.
Select the Preferences option.
Select the Advanced option.
Untick the box next to Automatically load Images and Click OK.

For more information visit Netscape Browser Central at:
http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/using/main.tmpl

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Instructions for Macintosh users
For full instructions on making use of the various versions of the Macintosh operating system's accessibility features, including resizing text, text-to-speech function and keyboard alternatives to mouse functions, visit the Apple website's section on disability at this address:

http://www.apple.com/disability/

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Alternative ways to view Adobe Acrobat documents
This site uses Adobe Acrobat to display certain documents. If your screen reader software (for example an audio-enabled web browser) is not compatible with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe provide a free online tool which converts the content of PDF files to a format which can be understood by most screen reader applications.

The URL of the document can be submitted either via email or web form, and the content is returned, converted either to HTML (i.e. standard web page format) or to plain text. Alternatively, the document the user wishes to read can be emailed as an attachment.

For more information, and full details of how to use this tool, visit:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html

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Navigate the site with keys
Site Map page:alt+4, enter
Home page:alt+0, enter
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Help page:alt+8, enter

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- List page:alt+t, enter, alt+2, enter

National News page:alt+n, enter

Regional News
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- West Midlands News page:alt+k, enter
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- East News page:alt+e, enter
- About East page:alt+e, enter, alt+2, enter
- London News page:alt+l, enter
- About London page:alt+l, enter, alt+2, enter
- South East News page:alt+q, enter
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- South West News page:alt+x, enter
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- Scotland News page:alt+z, enter
- About Scotland page:alt+z, enter, alt+2, enter
- Wales News page:alt+w, enter
- About Wales page:alt+w, enter, alt+2, enter
- Northen Ireland News page:alt+i, enter
- About Northen Ireland page:alt+i, enter, alt+2, enter

Advanced search page:alt+9, enter
Sign up page:alt+u, enter
My profile page:alt+m, enter
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Disclaimer page:alt+d, enter
Printer-friendly page:alt+p, enter
Skip navigation:alt+3, enter

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