How we've made this website more accessible
We are committed to complying with the Disability Discrimination Act and have made significant improvements to our website in order to reduce the barriers experienced by people with disabilities.
By following Government guidelines, it is our policy to create pages to W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Priority 2 level (Double A).
In the future we aim to offer more online services and we are designing these to be level 3 (Triple A) compliant, although if we purchase "off-the-shelf" software this will be at least level 2 compliant.
We are aware, however, that occasionally we do make mistakes. If you find any of our pages inaccessible please use the Website Feedback Form to let us know. Please include details of the technology you are using and we will make every reasonable effort to either remove the barrier or provide the information in a format that you find acceptable.
Browsealoud accessibility software
To help you access our website and services you can use click the 'Translate or listen to our website' link at the top of every page. This lets you use Browsealoud software to listen to or translate our website.
Browsealoud helps people with low literacy and reading skills, dyslexia, English as a second language and people with a mild visual impairment.
Browsealoud reads the content of a website to the user, who can select from a range of voices. It can read all types of content including text, tables, downloadable documents like pdfs and alt text for images.
Features include:
- text to speech
- dual-colour highlighting of text
- personalised voices
- text magnification
- talking dictionary
- talking translator
- screen mask
- MP3 maker
- reads PDF documents
More information on using Browsealoud is available from their website
My Computer, My way
My Computer My Way is AbilityNet's easy to use guide to the accessibility features built into your desktop PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. It can help with four areas that might cause you problems:
- Vision - help with seeing your screen
- Hearing - help with sounds and audio
- Motor - help with keyboard and mouse difficulties
- Cognitive - help with reading, spelling and understanding
My Computer, My Way guide - AbilityNet
Access keys
If you have difficulty in using a mouse or similar devices, you can use keyboard shortcuts. We follow the government's access key system.
You can use the following short cut keys to help you navigate around the site.
- 0 - Access key details
- 1 - Home page
- 3 - Site Map
- 4 - Search
- 6 - Privacy
- 7 - Website Disclaimer
- 8 - Terms & Conditions
- 9 - Contact us
- S - Skip navigation
How do I use the access keys for my browser?
We know that users make use of a wide range of different internet browsers. To find out how to make use of access keys we have supplied instructions for the main browsers in use.
To use these access keys follow the instructions below.
Internet Explorer version 8 and below (PC)
Hold down the ALT key, press the number or letter of the access key, release both keys then press ENTER
Internet Explorer 9 and above (PC)
Hold down the ALT key and press the number or letter of the access key
Internet Explorer (Mac)
Hold down the CTRL key and press the number or letter of the access key
Netscape (PC)
Hold down the ALT key and press the number or letter of the access key
Mozilla (PC)
Hold down the ALT key and press the number or letter of the access key
Mozilla (Mac)
Hold down the CTRL key and press the number or letter of the access key
Safari (PC)
Hold down the ALT key and press the number or letter of the access key
Safari (Mac)
Hold down the CTRL key and press the number or letter of the access key
Resizing text
If the text is too small for you to read comfortably then you can resize it. Instructions are given for major browsers below:
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Internet Explorer 4: Choose View>Internet Options…>Accessibility… and check the ignore font sizes specified on web pages option. Click OK, OK, and then you can alter the text size using the View>Text Size option
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Internet Explorer (version 5 and later): Choose Tools>Internet Options…>Accessibility… and check the ignore font sizes specified on web pages option. Click OK, OK, and then you can alter the text size using the View>Text Size option
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Mozilla FireFox: Select the keys CTRL and + (From menu: View, Text Size, Increase) together to increase text size and CTRL and - to reduce it (From menu: View, Text Size, Decrease)
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All other browsers: You should be able to resize the text directly from the menu bar. Please see your specific browser help pages if you are having difficulty
Low graphics pages
Although not strictly text-only, these pages are quicker to download and useful if you don't need the images or if you are on a slow connection.
Reading the website
We aim to make our website as easy to read as possible and follow the Plain English principles. We are constantly working to improve our website and make it easier to understand.
Downloadable documents
We aim to provide content in html format where possible. Where we have to use different formats this will be because:
- the information is too long or too complex for a webpage
- the content is an official council document, for example a council strategy documents or meeting minutes
- the user is likely to want to print the content, for example a brochure
- the document is needed in its original format – for example, bus timetables
- documents are from other agencies or other systems – for example, government publications or reports
We are working to improve the accessibility of our documents.
Download document viewing software
Where possible we try to provide downloadable documents in the following formats:
- PDF - A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided)
- XLS/XLSX - A reader can be downloaded free from the Microsoft website - XLS viewer (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided)
- DOC/DOCX - A reader can be downloaded free from the Microsoft website - DOC viewer (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided)
If you have difficulties obtaining information from a PDF you can use Adobe's web-based conversion service to produce an HTML version. However, please be aware that the standard of HTML produced is not very good.
We appreciate that it is frustrating to be unable to access information. Please bear with us whilst we continue to work on improving the accessibility of our site.
If any downloadable document presents a barrier to accessing information, please contact us with details of the document in question, the problems encountered and what we could do to help.
