Every effort has been made to make this site as accessible as possible.
We follow Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines and most pages comply with the guidelines. Where this is not the case we have done our best to make the content as accessible as we can.
If you need to see the content in a larger size
If you need to see the screen content in a larger size, use your browser’s built in Accessibility features to magnify the screen - this is recommended.
In Internet Explorer or Firefox, simply hold down the Ctrl key and use your mouse scroll wheel (or hold down the Ctrl key and press the plus or minus key) to change the size of the on-screen display. In Firefox, you may find that this enlarges just the text. If so, go to the Firefox menu, unselect View > Zoom > Zoom Text Only.
Accessibility advice for Mac users
The Mac operating system includes many accessibility options, including resizing text, text-to-speech and keyboard alternatives to mouse functions.
Visit the Apple website’s accessibility section.
Help with PDF documents
You can download Portable Document Format (PDF) documents using Adobe Reader – available free of charge.
If you have any Accessibility problems, suggestions or feedback please contact us.
Setting up your computer to suit your needs
AbilityNet and the BBC have developed a number of tutorials which tell you how to set up your computer to meet your needs in order to give you a better experience when using the web. For example, you can find out how to:
- change how information is shown on your screen, to get more on, or to see content more clearly
- change colours and fonts, a good idea if you have a visual impairment and need more contrast
- adapt the mouse, for example, to slow it down, make the pointer bigger, or if you’re left-handed
- change a variety of keyboard settings, including the rate at which the cursor blinks
Go to AbilityNet for more information, or My Web My Way to see the tutorials.
Keyboard shortcuts
You can use keys on the keyboard to move around our website more quickly. These are called shortcuts, and the keys you use depend on your browser. Find information for the four main browsers by selecting:
- Google Chrome shortcuts
- Internet Explorer version 9 shortcuts
- Internet Explorer version 10 shortcuts
- Internet Explorer version 11 shortcuts
- Firefox shortcuts
- Opera shortcuts
- Safari shortcuts
Other useful links
You can download free software from the web, and find out about accessibility features for a variety of systems. Choose from the links below:
- Screenreaders and talking browsers - latest advice from the BBC
- www.microsoft.com/enable/training/default.aspx - for details about the Microsoft accessibility wizard and how to use it
- www.accessfirefox.org/ - to enable accessibility features in Firefox and download extentions
External links will open in a new browser window or tab.