Accessibility

We have made every effort to ensure that this website is accessible to as many people as possible. It has been developed to comply with Priority 1 (Level A) of the W3C (Word-Wide Web Consortium) web accessibility guidelines and the Disability Discrimination Act. It also complies with many of the requirements for Priority 2 (Level AA).

Navigation – this has been designed to be simple, intuitive, logical and consistent to help every user find their way around.

Alt-tags – these have been used for all graphic images. Meaningful descriptions are given for all images except those that are simply decorative.

New browser windows Some logos will link to sites in new browser windows. When files are available for download, these will specify if they open in a new browser window.

Javascript – some areas of the site utilise Javascript to enhance your experience. If Javascript is not available, these enhancements are lost but site informaiton and actions are still accessible to you.

Mouse-free usability – in all sections other than the online activities sections, the site can be navigated using only the keyboard.

Text only version

If you wish to resize the text, then you should choose to view the text only version. Click on 'Text only' just below the BT logo. Then you can resize the text following instructions below.

If you come across a part of the site that is difficult to use, please tell us about it by using the form in Contact us.

>Downloads and plug ins

>Changing the text size

>Other options to make this site more accessible

>User machine specifications

Downloads and plug ins

if you are having trouble downloading or playing any of the resources on the site, it may be because you are missing the version of the plug in needed. Some of the Free Resources and guides on the site have been created with special features or document formats that require you to have additional 'plugins' installed on your computer. In many cases you may already have them, but we have provided links to installing these for free below.

Always check with your network administrator before installing any plug in.

Adobe Acrobat (PDF Format)

Download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat.

Information for blind and partially sighted users on making pdf documents accessible.

Windows Media Player

Download the latest version of Windows media player.

Macromedia Flash Shockwave/Flash

You will need the latest version of Flash – Flash 7 - to get the most out of our Free Resources.

Download the latest version of Macromedia Flash

Changing the text size

Using most browsers' built-in options you can adjust the size of text throughout this site (and any other sites which are built to allow resizing). See below for information on how to do this in specific web browsers.

If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, most browsers allow you to alter the text size by holding down 'Ctrl' and moving the wheel.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Select 'View' from the menu bar at the top of the window,

Select 'Text size' and select a size

You can go back and select 'Medium' as the size to get back to the browser's default setting.

Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape Navigator

Select 'View' from the menu bar at the top of the window

Select 'Text Size' and select either 'Increase' or 'Decrease'.

You can go back and select 'Normal' to get back to the browser's default setting.

Opera

Select 'View' from the menu bar at the top of the window

Select 'Zoom' and select an option higher than 100%.

You can go back and select '100%' to get back to the browser's default setting.

Apple Safari

Select 'View' from the menu bar at the top of the screen

Select 'Make Text Bigger'

You can select 'Make Text Smaller' option to get back to the browser's default setting.

Other options to make this site more accessible

Your Internet browser also provides other ways for you to make this website easier to read. You can change, colour or font, background colour, or remove the images, leaving pages as text-only.

The Help facility on your Internet browser software will contain a great deal of useful information on these and other accessibility options. Additional information on the different options for the most common browsers can be found by following the links below.

Accessibility options for Netscape Navigator users

There is currently no official online accessibility page for users of Netscape Navigator and its derivatives (Mozilla, FireFox, etc.) so please follow these instructions.

*For any of the instructions below:

Select ‘Edit’ from the Menu Bar
Select ‘Preferences’
Select ‘Appearance’
Select ‘Advanced’ and uncheck the box that says ‘Enable style sheets’
Click ‘OK’

Then choose one or more of the following options

*To change the font

Select ‘Font’
Alter the variable and fixed width fonts to your preferred option
Click ‘OK’

* To change the text colour

Select ‘Colours’
Select ‘Text’
Choose your preferred colour
Click ‘OK’

* To change the background colour

Select ‘Background’
Choose your preferred colour
Click ‘OK’

* To remove the images, leaving pages as text-only

Select the ‘Advanced’ option
Un-tick the box next to ‘Automatically load images’
Click ‘OK’

Finally

Click ‘OK’ again to close the Preferences panel

Recommended user machine specification for viewing the website

PC or Macintosh computer.
Suitable for Windows 95/NT operating system and above and Mac OS 8 and later.
800x600 pixel, 8-bit/256 colour video display .
Processor speed minimum 133Mhz.
56k modem or higher. Target download time for home page using dial-up connection at a data rate of 35Kbps (the rate typically obtained through a 56Kbps dial-up modem). 16 seconds (50k pages). Download times for PDF files and certain resources may be longer than this.
Microsoft IE browser version 5 and above, Netscape 6.0 and above.