Accessibility

Do you need help in making the web easier to use? Let's look at how you can do this in the main browsers for both mac and pc...

Windows

Firefox 1.5 /2 - Text Size

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of the text for the web page you are viewing:

  1. Open the ' View ' menu with the mouse or by press ' Alt ' and ' V ' at the same time.
  2. Select the ' Text Size ' option with the mouse or by pressing 'Z' .
  3. Increase or decrease the text size with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing ' Enter '.
  4. Alternatively you can press ' Ctrl ' and ' + ' to increase the text size, ' Ctrl ' and ' - ' to decrease the text size. ' Ctrl ' and ' 0 ' returns you to the default 'normal' size.


Follow these steps to set a minimum text size for all pages you visit:
  1. Open the ' Tools ' menu with the mouse or press ' Alt ' + ' T ' .
  2. Click on ' Options', or press ' O ' , to open the Options dialog box.
  3. Click the ' Content ' tab or use the arrow keys until it is highlighted (in blue).
  4. In the Fonts & Colours box click on ' Advanced ' , or press ' Alt ' + 'D '
  5. Click on ' Minimum font size ' box or press 'Alt '+ 'O ' . Use the up and down arrows to select a new font size and press ' Enter'
  6. Click ' OK ' button or press ' Enter ' .
  7. Click ' OK ' button or tab to ' OK ' button and press ' Enter ' .

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help. Return to Top

Internet Explorer 7.0 - Text Size

For the first time in Internet Explorer a zoom feature is included which allows you to enlarge the whole browser window.

to do this press ' Ctrl ' + ' + ' to increase the zoom and ' Ctrl ' + ' - ' to decrease the zoom.
You can also change the text size. The way to do this does depend on how the site has been built.

For many sites you only need to do the following:

  1. Open the ' Page ' menu with the mouse or by pressing ' Alt'+'P ' .
  2. Select the ' Text Size ' option with the mouse or by pressing ' X '.
  3. Choose your preferred text size by clicking on it or by using the up and down arrow keys to select it and then press ' Enter ' .


The text on the website should now have changed to reflect your choice.
However some websites have fixed the size of their text ('hard-coded') and as a result these websites will not show the change you have just made. If you would like to use larger text on these sites follow the following steps:
  1. Click on the ' Tools ' menu with the mouse or press ' Alt '+' O ' .
  2. Click on ' Internet Options ' option with the mouse or press ' O ' . You should now see the ' Internet Options '
  3. Click on the ' Accessibility ' button or press ' Alt '+ ' E ' .
  4. In the Accessibility box click the ' Ignore font sizes specified on web page ' checkbox to add a tick or press ' Alt '+' Z '
  5. Click the ' OK ' button to return to the Internet Options box.
  6. Click on the ' OK ' button, or press ' Tab ' until ' OK ' is selected and then press ' Enter ' to return to Internet Explorer.

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help. Return to Top

Internet Explorer 5/6 - Text Size

  1. Open the ' View ' menu with the mouse or by pressing ' Alt'+'V ' .
  2. Select the ' Text Size ' option with the mouse or by pressing ' X ' .
  3. Choose your preferred text size with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing ' Enter ' or by clicking on it.
The text on our website should now have changed to reflect your choice.

Some websites have fixed the size of their text ('hard-coded') and as a result these websites will not show the change you have just made. If you would like to use your larger text on these sites follow the following steps:
  1. Click on the ' Tools ' menu with the mouse or press ' Alt '+' T ' .
  2. Click on ' Internet Options ' option with the mouse or press ' O ' . You should now see the ' Internet Options ' box
  3. Click on the ' Accessibility ' button or press ' Alt '+ ' E ' .
  4. Click the ' Ignore font sizes specified on web page ' checkbox to add a tick or press ' Alt '+' Z '
  5. Click the ' OK ' button twice with the mouse or press ' Enter ' twice, to return to Internet Explorer.


Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help. Return to Top

Mac

Firefox 1.5 / 2 - Text Size

Note: Mac key convention: ' Ctrl ' is used for 'Control', ' Apple ' is used for 'Command' and ' Alt ' is used for the 'Option' key .

Note: For keyboard access make sure ' Full keyboard access ' is turned on - you can turn it on or off; by pressing ' Ctrl ' + ' F1 ' at any time.

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of the text for the web page you are viewing:

  1. Click on the ' View ' menu with the mouse.
  2. Hover your mouse over ' Text Size ' and choose a different text size from the listed options

Or to use keyboard shortcuts:
  1. Press ' Apple ' and ' + ' (plus) to increase the text size and ' Apple ' and ' - ' (minus ) to decrease the text size.

Take the following steps to set a larger text size for all the pages you visit:
  1. Click the ' Firefox ' menu with the mouse or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F2 ' to highlight the menu bar and then press the right arrow to highlight the ' Firefox ' menu
  2. Click on ' Preferences' or press the down arrow to highlight ' Preferences ' and then press ' Enter '.
  3. Make sure the ' Content ' tab is selected if not click on it (or use the left / right arrow keys to select it).
  4. Under ' Fonts and Colors ' click on ' Advanced ' or use the ' Tab ' key to highlight it and press the ' Spacebar ' to select
  5. Click an the 'Size' drop down menu next to ' Proportional ' and select the font size you want or ' Tab ' to ' Size' and use the up/down arrow keys and the ' Enter ' key to select.
  6. Click the checkbox ' Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above ' to deselect it (turn it off) or ' Tab ' to the checkbox and press the ' Spacebar ' to deselect it
  7. Click ' OK ' button or press ' Enter '
  8. Press ' Apple ' + ' W ' to return to Firefox.


Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help. Return to Top

Safari - Text Size

Note: Mac key convention: ' Ctrl ' is used for 'Control', ' Apple ' is used for 'Command' and ' Alt ' is used for the 'Option' key .

Note: For keyboard access make sure ' Full keyboard access ' is turned on - you can turn it on or off; by pressing ' Ctrl ' + ' F1 ' at any time.

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of the text for the web page you are viewing:

  1. Click on the ' View ' menu with the mouse.
  2. Click on ' Make Text Bigger' or Make Text Smaller to change the font size
Or to to use keyboard shortcuts:

  1. Increase or decrease the text size with ' Apple ' and ' + ' (plus) and ' Apple ' and ' - ' (minus).
Take the following steps to set a larger text size for all the pages you visit:

  1. Click on the ' Safari ' menu with the mouse and then then click on ' Preferences ' or press ' Apple ' + ,' (Comma).
  2. Click on the ' Appearance ' icon or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F5 ' to highlight the ' General ' icon and then press the right arrow key to highlight ' Appearance '
  3. Click on ' Select ' next to ' Standard font: ' box or press ' Tab ' once to highlight the ' Select ' button and then press the ' Spacebar '
  4. This will bring up the ' Fonts ' window click on font size you want under the ' Sizes ' heading or press ' Ctrl ' + ' F6 ' then ' Ctrl ' + ' F7 ' then ' Tab ' twice to enter the ' Sizes ' box were you can type in the font size you want and then press ' Enter '.
  5. Click on the ' Fonts ' box close button or press ' Esc '.
  6. Click on the ' Appearance ' window close button or press ' Esc ' to return to Safari.
  7. On pages that support it the text size should now have changed.


Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help. Return to Top