Accessibility

We hope that this page helps with understanding how our website can be made accessible to our readers. If you are unable to find the information here you are looking for please visit AbilityNet.org.uk/myway.

Please click on a headings below to jump to the section required:

• Browsers & Accessibilty
• Screen reader users
  
• How to increase font/text sizes from within your browser

Browers and Accessibilty

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on a web site. On Windows, you can press ALT and an access key followed by Enter; on Macintosh, you can press Control and an access key.

An access key is simply one of the number keys on your keyboard, usually along the top between the function keys and the letter keys.

• Access key 0 - Accessibility statement (this page)
• Access key 1 - Home page
• Access key 3 - Site map
• Access key 5 - Contact us

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Screen reader users

Screen readers are used by people who are blind or nearly blind. Listening to the web is a very different experience from looking at it as it becomes a stream of words. Screen reader users also don’t use a mouse to navigate, instead they use only the keyboard.

Our web designer has tried to smooth the way for screen reader users. This includes making sure images can be “heard” as well as making it easy to fill in our online forms. We test new pages to make sure they’re easy to use for screen reader users. If you surf the net with a screen reader and have problems using this site, please report it to cd@carolinedent.co.uk so we can do something about it.

Visual content images
Texts alternative code has been applied to all our images (“alt texts”). Sighted users on Internet Explorer can put their mouse on an image to see the text alternative. If we didn’t do that, screen reader users would hear the file name of the image instead.

PDF documents
There can be many links to PDF documents with important information. Screen readers have to work harder to read PDF documents as a PDF is a whole image. If you have differculties reading PDF documents please get in touch with ESRA graham@esrasurrey.co.uk so we can help you and do something about it.

Links
In the popular screen reader Jaws a single keystroke will bring up a list of all links on a page. Skilled screen reader users use this feature a lot. That is why we make sure that the text we use for our links doesn’t just say “click here” but details where the link leads to, e.g. “visit In work support” or “In work suppor”. Please report any links that you may think need updating,as sometimes links may not be accessible for screen readers.

Pop ups & New screen windows
Pop-ups and new windows can be very disorienting when you listen to a page. But some times they are helpful because your reader can quickly read something, close the window, and know that you are still on the same page. This website has no pop up boxs to confuse or annoy our readers. Only links on the 'Useful links' page open up in a new window.

Tables
Some times information is easier to understand when it’s in a table.

This website uses HTML tables which are used to place content on web pages in an invisible grid. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)have been been used in this website

Forms
Online forms are easy to fill in for people who use a screen reader. Paper forms on the other hand often mean relying on a person with better vision for help.

Our forms are programmed in PHP coding and accessible for using the following:

• the structure of the form with fields and labels is marked up
• you can use the TAB key to reach all fields and buttons
• the ENTER key sends off the form
• any error messages are before the field that has a problem
  

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How to increase font/text sizes from within your browser

1. Load Internet Explorer
2. Select 'Page' from the Internet Explorer 7 browser toolbar
3. Select 'Zoom' and your desired increase/decrease
4. Shortcut: press ctrl and minus key to reduce size, press ctrl and plus key to increase size
   

1. Load Firefox 3
2. Select 'View' from menu
3. Select 'Text Size'
4. Select your desired increase/decrease
5. Shortcut: press ctrl and minus key to reduce size, press ctrl and plus key to increase size

1. Load Safari
2. Select View
3. Select either 'Make Text Bigger' or 'Make Text Smaller'
4. Shortcut: press ctrl and minus key to reduce size, press ctrl and plus key to increase size

1. Load Google Chrome
2. Select 'View' from menu
3. Select 'Text Size'
4. Select your desired zoom in/zoom out, to reset size select 'actual size'
5. Shortcut: press ctrl and minus key to reduce size, press ctrl and plus key to increase size

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If you have any queriesor suggestions please feel free to email our designer: cd@carolinedent.co.uk

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