We are committed to making this site accessible to all visitors using any browser. However, if you experience any difficulty in viewing any of the pages or accessing any of the information, please let us know.

Controlling text and colours in your web browser

If you use the Internet Explorer, Firefox or Netscape browsers to view the Internet, the following guidelines will enable you to enlarge the size of the text and control the colours on your screen. However, if you require even larger text, or use a text-only browser, please refer to the RNIB website: www.rnib.org.uk , which contains useful information on how to access the web using different technologies

Instructions for users of Microsoft Internet Explorer:

For PC

1. Open your Internet Explorer Web Browser
2. Select 'Tools' from the menu at the top of your window
3. From the options which appear, select 'Internet options...'
4. Click on the 'General' tab
5. Click on the button marked 'Accessibility'
6. To change your font size, select the checkbox marked 'Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages'
7. To remove background and font colours, select the checkbox marked 'Ignore colours specified on web pages'
8. Click 'OK' (and again if necessary)
9. Select 'View' from the menu at the top of your window.
10. From the options which appear, select 'Text size'
11. Select your desired text size

For Apple Mac

1. Open your Internet Explorer Web Browser
2. Select the 'edit' menu at the top of your window
3. From the options menu which appears, select 'preference'
4. Click on 'web content'
5. Deselect the button marked 'show style sheets'
6. Return to the list of preferences
7. Click on 'web browser'
8. Select 'language/fonts'
9. Select the font size you require

Instructions for users of Mozilla Firefox:

Page zoom

You can zoom in and out of pages including images, in the View > Zoom menu, or with the following keyboard shortcuts:

Press Ctrl++ to display the web page one size larger
Press Ctrl+- to display the web page one size smaller
Press Ctrl+0 to display the web page at its normal size

Setting a Minimum Font Size

Some web sites may display text which is too small to read comfortably. To make such pages easier to read, you can set a minimum font size. On web pages that try to display text smaller than this size, Firefox will enlarge the text to your chosen size.

To set a minimum font size, go to Tools > Options and select the Content panel, and click the Advanced button in the Fonts & Colours section. You can specify a minimum font size from the dropdown menu.

Note that some web pages may display incorrectly depending on your choice of a minimum font size.

Overriding Page Colours

You can set your default colors by going to Tools > Options> selecting the Content panel, and clicking the Colours button in the Fonts & Colours section.

You can set default text and background colours, as well as default colours for visited and unvisited hyperlinks. You can also specify whether hyperlinks should be underlined.

However, many web pages set their own colors, so your choices will have no effect. To override the colours defined by web pages, uncheck the Allow pages to choose their own colours, instead of my selections above option.

Using a High Contrast Theme

Firefox automatically detects if you are using a High Contrast theme and displays everything in your high contrast color scheme. This overrides all other other browser or web page settings, and it affects the Firefox interface itself (all menus, windows, and dialog boxes) and the content of any web page you visit.

To use a High Contrast theme, go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Accessibility Options > Display and check the Use High Contrast option.

Instructions for users of Netscape Navigator

To change the text size:

1. Select 'Edit' from the menu at the top of the window and choose 'Preferences'
2. Open the Appearance group and click the Fonts category
3. Next to 'Fonts for:' should read Western to tell the computer which types of letters and symbols to use.
4. Next to the 'Proportional' field is a drop down box: select 'Sans-serif' . For the size select 18.
5. Next to the 'Monospace' field, the box should already read 'Courier New'. From 'Size' select 18.
6. In the 'Minimum font size' box select size 18.
7. Deselect the 'Allow documents to use other fonts' checkbox so no tick shows by clicking on it.
8. Click 'OK'

To change the page colors:

1. Select 'Edit' from the menu at the top of the window and choose 'Preferences'
2. Open the Appearance group and click the 'Colors' category
3. Select a color button to change colors of text, background, unvisited links, or visited links
4. To override the colours used on the web page, select the 'Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image chosen' option.
5. Click 'OK'