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Accessibility Options and Information

The site has been designed to be highly accessible and contains a number of accessibility and usability features.

Text and Links

All text can be resized using the controls in your browser.
All text is in a dark font on a lighter background and all colour combinations have high colour and brightness contrast.
All links are underlined with either a solid or dotted line. The style of the line changes when the mouse is hovered over the link or it is selected using keyboard controls or any other means.

Menus

The top-level menu is consistent throughout the site. The contents of the secondary menu are different in each section but are consistent within the section.

Horizontal Scrollbars

These will not appear at 800x600 screen resolution or higher even if the font size is increased to the maximum.

They may appear at lower screen resolutions or if the window is not maximised because some content cannot wrap onto another line (e.g. images or long words).

Standards Compliance

Every page validates to the XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS2 standards.
Every page meets all the Priority 3 requirements of the WCAG.

Breadcrumb Trail (You are here - )

The breadcrumb trail is a series of links that show how to navigate to the current page starting from the home page. It is located after the secondary navigation menu just before the main content and begins with the phrase 'You are here'.

'Skip to Content' Links

The first item on every page is a 'Skip to Content' link. This bypasses the page header, main menu, secondary menu and breadcrumb trail, allowing you to jump directly to the top of the main page content. This feature is of greatest use to users with speech and text browsers or if the pages are linearised for any other reason such as lack of CSS support.

Accesskeys

Due to the lack of a recognised assignment convention, accesskeys have only been used for the top-level navigation menu. The accesskey assignments we have used are as follows:

A is for About Us
C is for Contact Us
H is for Home
M is for Site Map
O is for Accessibility Options and Information
S is for Services
T is for Training

Popup Windows

The site does not use any popup windows even for links to external websites.

Future Developments

We are planning a number of features to improve the site's accessibility and invite you to send your suggestions to webmaster@theaccessiblesite.co.uk

Accessibility & User Preferences

Help in Making Our Website Look the Way You Want

We want everyone to benefit from The Accessible Sites's services, so we have designed and built our site to meet the needs of all users. As The accessible Site is fully compliant with level three accessibility rules, users can adjust settings such as font size and background colour to improve visibility and make the most of our site.

Our website has been written in such a way that any changes you've already made in your web browser prior to visiting us are automatically reflected.

The following information will not only help you to change the colours, text size and style of our website, but will also explain how these changes can be made to affect every site you visit if you so wish.

This section includes information on the following:

Changing the size of the text
Changing the style of the text
Changing text and background colours

Before we can give you instructions on how to make these changes we need to know which browser you are using. Please select one of the following:

Internet Explorer

Netscape Navigator

Opera

Internet Explorer

Changing the Size of the Text:

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of the text on our site:

Open the View menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+V.
Select the Text Size option with the mouse or by pressing T.
Choose your preferred text size with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing Enter.

The text on our website should now have changed to reflect your choice.

Some websites have "hard-coded" the size of their text and as a consequence these websites will not reflect the change you have just made. If you would like your preferences to be reflected on other sites you visit please follow these steps:

Open the Tools menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+T.
Select the Internet Options option with the mouse or by pressing O (see fig1, below).
Select the Accessibility button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+E (see fig 2, below).
Check the "Ignore font sizes specified on web page" checkbox with the mouse or by pressing alt+Z.
Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.

fig 1 (Internet Explorer Internet Options dialog box)

fig 2 (Internet Explorer Accessibility dialog box)

Changing the Style of the Text

We have chosen a clear non-seriffed font which should be more easily read by those with a visual impairment or dyslexia than other font styles (such as, for example, Times New Roman). However,you may wish to impose a different text style browser setting as many websites you visit may not have text in a style you find easy to read. The following steps will also override the style they have chosen with that of your preferred choice:

Open the Tools menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+T.
Select the Internet Options option with the mouse or by pressing O (see fig 1, above).
Select the Accessibility button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+E (see fig 2, above).
Check the "Ignore font styles specified on web page" checkbox with the mouse or by pressing alt+S.
Select the OK button with the mouse or by pressing Enter.
Select the "Fonts" button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+N (see fig 3, below).
Select a web page font of your choice with the mouse or by pressing Alt+W and arrowing through the list.
Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.

fig 3 (Internet Explorer Fonts dialog box)

Changing Browser Settings of Text and Background Colours

Although we have tried to retain a good contrast at all times, you may wish to impose a different combination of text and background colours. For example, some people with a visual impairment may prefer white text on a black background.

Please follow these steps to change the colours on our site:

Open the Tools menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+T.
Select the Internet Options option with the mouse or by pressing O (see fig 1, above).
Select the Colors button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+O (see fig 4, below).
Choose to have your Windows colour scheme reflected by selecting the "Use Windows color scheme" option with the mouse or by pressing Alt+W.

OR:

Select either the Text button with the mouse (or by pressing Alt+T), or the Background button with the mouse (or by pressing Alt+B).
Select the colour of your choice with the mouse or by using the arrow keys.
Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.

fig 4 (Internet Explorer Colors dialog box)

Some websites have "hard-coded" their text and background colours and as a consequence these websites will not reflect the change you have just made. If you would like your preferences to be reflected on other sites you visit please follow these steps:

Open the Tools menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+T.
Select the Internet Options option with the mouse or by pressing O (see fig 1, above).
Select the Accessibility button with the mouse or by pressing Alt+E (see fig 2, above).
Check the "Ignore colors specified on web page" checkbox with the mouse or by pressing alt+C.
Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.

Netscape Navigator

Changing the Size of the Text

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of text on our site:

Open the View menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+V.
Select the Text Zoom option with the mouse or by pressing Z.
Choose your preferred text size with the mouse or by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing Enter.

Some web sites have "hard-coded" the size of their text and as a consequence these web sites will not reflect the change you have just made. If you would like your preferences to be reflected on other sites you visit please follow these steps (Please note: If you are using Netscape v7 then the following steps are not necessary):

fig 1 (Netscape Font Preferences Dialog box)

Open the Edit menu with the mouse or press Alt+E
Click on Preferences or press E to open the preferences dialog box.
Click on, or use the arrow keys, to select the Font heading underneath the Appearance category. If you cannot see the Font heading, you may need to expand the Appearance category. Do this by either double clicking on Appearance, or selecting Appearance with the arrow keys and pressing the right arrow key (See fig 1).
Using the mouse, or the Tab key, navigate to the Minimum Font Size box on the right hand side. Click on the arrow and choose a new font size, or press the up arrow, choose a new font size and press Enter.
Now click OK or press Enter to return to the page you were viewing.

Changing the Style of the Text Browser Settings

We have chosen a clear non-seriffed font which should be more easily read by those with a visual impairment or dyslexia than other font styles (such as, for example, Times New Roman). However, you may wish to impose a different text style as many web sites you visit may not have text in a style you find easy to read. The following steps will also override the style they have chosen with that of your preferred choice.

Open the Edit menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+E.
Click on Preferences or press E to open the preferences dialog box.
Click on, or use the arrow keys, to select the Font heading underneath the Appearance category. If you cannot see the Font heading, you may need to expand the Appearance category. Do this by either double clicking on Appearance, or selecting Appearance with the arrow keys and pressing the right arrow key (See fig 1).
Using the mouse, or the Tab key, navigate to the box labelled "Allow documents to use other fonts" and press the space bar or use the mouse to ensure that this option is not checked.
Use the mouse, or the tab key, to navigate to the Proportional drop down box.
Press the up or down arrow keys and Enter to choose the font you wish to use, or use the mouse and click on your chosen font. A proportional font is one in which the letters are of varying widths, like this paragraph. You can either choose Serif or Sans Serif.
Once you have chosen the default proportional font, you can set the default size. Press Tab or use the mouse to click in the size box immediately after the proportional font. Press the up or down arrow keys and Enter, or use the mouse, to choose the font you want.
Tab once more, or use the mouse, to navigate to the Serif box. Press up or down, select the font you want to use and press Enter, or use the mouse to click on the font that you want to use (this will only be used if you selected Serif as the Proportional font in stage 5).
Tab once more, or use the mouse to navigate to the Sans Serif box. Press up or down, select the font you want to use and press Enter, or use the mouse to click on the font that you want to use (this will only be used if you selected Sans Serif as the proportional font).
Tab once more, or use the mouse to navigate to the Cursive box. Press up or down and then Enter to choose the font you wish to use, or use the mouse and click on your chosen font. This is used when someone has specified a cursive font on their page.
Tab once more, or use the mouse to navigate to the Fantasy box. Press up or down and then Enter to choose the font you wish to use, or use the mouse and click on your chosen font. This is used when someone has specified a Fantasy font on their page.
Tab once more, or use the mouse to navigate to the Monospace box. Press up or down and then Enter to choose the font you wish to use, or use the mouse and click on your chosen font. This is used when someone has specified a monospace font on their page.
Now click OK or press Enter to return to the page you were viewing.

Changing Browser Settings of Text and Background Colours

fig 2 (Netscape Colors Preferences Dialog Box)

Open the Edit menu with mouse or press Alt+E
Click on preferences or press E
Click on, or use the arrow keys, to select the Colors heading underneath the Appearance category. If you cannot see the Colors heading, you may need to expand the Appearance category. Do this by either double clicking on Appearance, or selecting Appearance with the arrow keys and pressing the right arrow key (see fig 2).
Choose to have your Windows colour scheme reflected by Tabbing to the Use System Colors option and pressing space to select it, or click it with the mouse OR
Click on the Text or Background color option and choose an alternative colour, or press Tab until the Text or Background color box is highlighted, press the space bar, use the arrow keys to choose an alternative colour and press space to confirm this colour.
Press Enter to return to Netscape.

Some web sites have "hard-coded" their text and background colours and as a consequence these web sites will not reflect the changes you have just made. If you would like your preferences to be reflected on other sites you visit please follow these steps:

Open the Edit menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+E
Click on, or use the arrow keys to select the Colors heading underneath the Appearance category. If you cannot see the Colors heading, you may need to expand the Appearance category. Do this by either double clicking on Appearance, or selecting Appearance with the arrow keys and pressing the right arrow key (See fig 2).
Use the mouse or press Tab to select the "Use my chosen colours, ignoring the colours and background images specified" option and press space to select this option.
Press Enter to return to the page you were viewing.

Opera

Changing the Size of Text and Images

Unlike Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, Opera can increase the size of images as well as text.

You can quickly increase or decrease the size of both text and graphics using the numberpad + and - keys. Each press will increase or decrease the size by 10%.

However, these changes will not be remembered next time you open Opera.

Follow these steps to increase or decrease the size of the text permanently:

Open the File menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+F.
Select the Preferences option with the mouse or by pressing R.
Select "Page Style" from the list with the mouse or by using the down arrow key (see fig 1, below).
Select the "Default Zoom" of your choice with the mouse or by pressing Z and using the up and down arrows.
Select the OK button with the mouse or by pressing Enter.

fig 1 (Opera Preferences page styles dialog box)

The text on our website should now have changed to reflect your choice.

Open the File menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+F.
Select the Preferences option with the mouse or by pressing R.
Select "Page Style" from the list with the mouse or by using the down arrow key (see fig 1, above).
Select the "Default Zoom" of your choice with the mouse or by pressing Z and using the up and down arrows.
Select the "My fonts and colours" option with the mouse or by pressing Alt+C.
Select the OK button with the mouse or by pressing Enter.

Changing the Style of the Text

We have chosen a clear non-seriffed font which should be more easily read by those with a visual impairment or dyslexia than other font styles (such as, for example, Times New Roman). However, you may wish to impose a different text style as many websites you visit may not have text in a style you find easy to read. The following steps will also override the style they have chosen with that of your preferred choice:

Ensure the "My fonts and colours" option is selected as described in the previous section.
Open the File menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+F.
Select the Preferences option with the mouse or by pressing R.
Select "Fonts and Colours" from the list with the mouse or by using the down arrow key (see fig 2, below).
Select the type of text you want to redefine (e.g. "Normal") from the list with the mouse or by pressing Tab and using the up and down arrow keys.
Select the first Choose button with the mouse by pressing Tab and Enter (see fig 3, below).
Select from the subsequent dialog box the text style of your choosing with the mouse or by using Tab and the arrow keys.
Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.

fig 2 (Opera Preferences fonts and colors dialog box)

fig 3 (Opera Preferences fonts selection dialog box)

Changing Text and Background Colours

Please follow these steps to change the colours on our site:

Ensure the "My fonts and colours" option is selected as described in the previous section.
Open the File menu with the mouse or by pressing Alt+F.
Select the Preferences option with the mouse or by pressing R.
Select "Fonts and Colours" from the list with the mouse or by using the down arrow key (see fig 2, above).
Select the type of text you want to redefine (e.g. "Normal") from the list with the mouse or by pressing Tab and using the up and down arrow keys.
Select the first Choose button with the mouse by pressing Tab and Enter.
Select from the subsequent dialog box the text colour of your choosing with the mouse or by using Tab and the arrow keys (see fig 3, above).
Select the OK button with the mouse or by pressing Enter.
Select the second Choose button with the mouse or by pressing Tab and Enter.
Select from the subsequent dialog box the background colour of your choosing with the mouse or by using Tab and the arrow keys.
Select the OK button twice with the mouse or by pressing Enter twice.

Upgrade your browser

So that you get the most from our website - and the web in general - we recommend that Microsoft Internet Explorer users upgrade their browsers to Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 6 offers enhanced privacy features and provides a more flexible and reliable browsing experience. It is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME), Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Windows NT® with Service Pack 6a or later.

You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer 6 at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Getting Help on Keyboard Shortcuts

Many users prefer or need to use the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Select the Help menu and then Keyboard option (or press Alt+B) to bring up a full list of keyboard shortcuts for Opera.

Opera is a free web browser with some useful accessibility features. For more information or to download please visit www.opera.com .

Improve visibility on uSwitch.com

If you have difficulty reading the uSwitch website on your screen, you can improve visibility in a number of ways:

Increase Font size
Browser Recommendations

Increase Font size:

Change your default font and size to one that suits you. uSwitch recommends:

Small Sans Serif
Large Sans Serif
Large Serif
Browser Default Size

Increase Font Size Using Your Browser

Modern standards-compliant browsers also allow you to easily increase the font sizing from the view menu, the keyboard or even the mouse by simply selecting the command to increase or decrease font size. The Opera browser can scale the entire webpage - fonts, images and all.

Internet Explorer (any) and Netscape Navigator (4.7 or prior) will only allow font sizing if you switch your stylesheet to the "Browser Default Sizing" listed above. Again this does not affect the toolbar.

Browser Recommendations:

Upgrade your browser

You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer 6 at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

While uSwitch does its best to support users with older browsers, the reality is that almost all of our online/electronic resources require the use of modern standards-compliant browsers which have both JavaScript and cookies enabled.

There are now several excellent browsers to choose from apart from Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and many of these alternate browsers are designed to run on older class Pentiums or Macs. For more information on standards compliant browsers visit The Web Standards Project or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) .

Users with visual impairments

For users with visual impairments, accessibility issues or even users who wear glasses for reading, we highly recommend the use of the Opera web browser. It has some excellent accessibility features, the most notable of which is the ability to easily scale both the text and graphics for entire web pages. It does carry small banner ads in its toolbar, the removal of which requires a registration fee.

uSwitch recommends and supports the use of Internet Explorer, to which all of our web pages conform.

Free downloads of the following browsers are available at these URLs:

for Windows
- Opera (An excellent alternative, with great accessibility features including full page scaling. Works with all online resources. Fast.)
- Mozilla (A very rich browser. Fully standards compliant. Requires some degree of computer savvy for some pluggins and features.)
- Netscape Navigator (A great improvement over Netscape 6 and MSIE 6. Works with all online resources.)
- Internet Explorer (Very solid browser. Works with all online resources. Considered standard. Limited CSS.)
- Phoenix (Not for the faint of heart. Fast and very compact footprint.)
for Macintosh
- Opera (An excellent alternative, with great accessibility features including full page scaling. Works with all online resources. Fast.)
- Netscape Navigator (A great improvement over Netscape 6 and MSIE 6. Works with all online resources.)
- Safari (A very solid browser and fast. Appears to be the new standard Macintosh browser replacing IE but only for Macintosh OS X.)
- Internet Explorer (A fairly solid browser. Works with all online resources. HOWEVER, Microsoft is no longer supporting or developing it.)
- Camino (Mozilla flavour for the Macintosh. Still very beta.)

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Accessibility and user preferences