This web site contains several accessibility features, including: different styles with which to view this web site, structured layout, scalable font sizes, list based menus with 'skip links', other navigation aids and mostly valid XHTML using CSS for styling. For more information click on the links below:

How to change styles (how you view this website)

You can change the way you view this web site using either the links below or the 'Change Style' options under the sub-menu ('In this Section'). Some browsers also have the ability to change styles from their menus.

These style changes are set in a cookie ( see our Privacy Policy ), so as long as the cookie remains, your changes will be remembered. If you delete your cookies then your preferred style will be lost and you will have to re-set it. Obviously if you do not allow cookies then your style preferences cannot be set.

  • Default
    Default style image    This style is for most normal modern browsers with a screen over 640 x 480px. It is a 'Jello' design so it expands, even on big screens, but only up to a point, so that line length of the content does not become too long and therefore difficult to read. It is the default style.
  • Default Alternate
    Default Alternate style     Similar to the default style above but with an alternate theme. This provides a different view for those who prefer an alternative colour scheme.
  • Zoom
    Zoom style image     This zoom style is intended for use by those with less than perfect vision and also for older or some mobile browsers, with a screen size less than 640 x 480px. The website is rearranged into a single elastic column. It expands to the maximum screen width available, although this may make it more difficult to read on big screens. (You could try narrowing your browser window width.) It comes with a larger default font, although all our styles have fonts that are re-sizeable if your browser supports it. The main top menu has visible 'Jump to contents' and 'Jump to sub-menu' links . The sub menu ('In this Section') is now situated below the main contents. As it is a single column style it is capable of very large text re-sizing.
  • Zoom Alternate
    Zoom Alternate style image     Similar to the zoom style above but with an alternative theme. Both Zoom styles also incorporate visible main menu and sub-menu numbering. This is based on 'legal document numbering' , where the main menu is either a 'page' or a 'section' and is a whole number. e.g. '2'. The sub-menu can be a 'Sub-Section' e.g. 2.1 or a 'Page' e.g. 2.1.1. The current section, current sub-section and or current page are shown in the menus. This is designed to aid users in knowing where they are within the website navigation structure. It is also shown on this websites sitemap.
  • Mobile / PDA
    Mobile PDA image     This is the web site style for mobile phones or pda's.  As such it is not too dissimilar to the 'Zoom' or 'No Style' layouts but is specifically written for mobile phones and PDA's. This might be your  default view of this website if you are using a mobile phone or a pda  browser, (excluding the iPhone and iTouch,) because we look at your browser string and set a cookie accordingly.

    If you do not automatically get this style on your mobile phone or pda then you can switch to it.  This mobile style is designed to be very lightweight, so no superfluous images or code are downloaded so it saves on bandwidth and download times. It is flexible in width, simple in layout, with larger fonts and higher contrast colours .

    PDA and some mobile phone users may also wish to experiment with how they view this website perhaps with different styles - no guarantees they will work though. With this mobile style, you could also try different browser options such as:  'Shrink to Fit to Screen', 'Single Column' or similar from your browser menu, if it is available. You may also want to adjust the font size.

    iPhone and iPod Touch users, by default, get the full version of the web site which is fully 'zoom-able' and 'tap-able'. You can also change to different styles as well. This mobile style is a good alternative to the default style, especially when browsing on low speed networks!

  • No Style
    No style image     This is the web site without any styling. It is also what you would see if your browser did not understand how this web site is styled, for example older browsers, text browsers or some mobile phones and PDA's. The ability to change styles may not work, even though it is visible, if this is what you see by default.

You should note that the ability to change styles is not available in all browsers.

How to increase or decrease our website font size

Any of the style views of this web site allow text re-sizing. However, if you need to increase the font size to a very large degree, then please use either of the 'Zoom' styles or the 'No Style' option. The 'Zoom' styles are specifically designed for such font enlargement and have a bigger initial font-size.

Several web browsers allow you to increase or decrease the font size of a page by using either the menus or key presses. Please refer to your browser documentation. Here are some of the more common ones:

  • Internet Explorer 5+
    Select 'View' from the menu. There is an item labeled 'Text Size', which opens a sub-menu. This sub-menu should have the items 'Largest', 'Larger', 'Medium', 'Smaller', and 'Smallest'.
  • Firefox
    CTL key and '+' (increase) or CTL key '-' (decrease). CTL '0' resets to the default size
    On the mac use the "command" key (the one with the Apple logo on it) and '+', "command" "-" or "command" '0.
  • Opera
    Select 'View' from the menu. There is an item labeled 'Zoom'. Choose the percentage of +/- zoom you require. Note this is a 'Zoom' not a font-resize.
  • Safari
    Apple key and '+' (increase) or Apple key '-' (decrease).

How to use our website navigation

  • Main Navigation
    Our website is split into sections. Each section is an item on the main menu at the top of the page, This effectively let you move between sections. The sub-menu (to the right or to the bottom of the page - depending on which style you are using,) contains the subsections and or pages for that section.
    We also have a Search Engine and a Site Map to help you locate the information you require. If you still cannot find what you are looking for then please contact us.
  • Breadcrumb Link Navigation
    This website has a 'breadcrumbs' link list at the bottom of the sub menu. This enables you to see where you are within a section of the website, with click-able links back up that sections hierarchy.
  • Footer Navigation
    In the footer of each page is a further set of navigation links. The 'Previous' and 'Next' links take you back or forward through the web site respectively. There is also a 'Top' link which jumps you to the top of the current page. The 'Previous' page, Next' page and 'Home' page navigational information is also contained within internal navigation (rel) links, which some browsers are able to utilise.
  • Other Navigation
    You can also click on the website logo, situated at the top of all pages, to jump to the home page.
    If you wish to see a 'click-able' overview of this website, showing all the pages as a hierarchy, then please visit our site-map page.

How well does this website validate

  • XHTML
    Much of this website validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict. Currently only a few pages are known to fail this validation: Any 'Map' pages because of some 'Google Map VML' elements we had to include for Internet Explorer and some of the pages with forms on. Some 'form' pages fail, which is due to a minor glitch with the forms layout caused by a small problem with the CMS (Content Management System). Bug reports have been logged and we hope this will be rectified soon. You can see if a page validates by clicking on the 'XHTML 1.0 Strict' option in the footer.
  • CSS
    Most of the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) validate, where they do not validate it is because the choice was to put functionality and usability above validation. You can see which pages CSS validates and which does not by clicking on the 'CSS' option in the footer. (Most often the CSS fails to validate because of the CSS  rounded corners from CSS3, which the CSS2 validator cannot validate, and their corresponding proprietary extensions for Firefox and Safari.)
  • RSS
    If there is a News page with an RSS feed, you can validate this feed below:
    You can validate our RSS News Feed
  • Accessibility
    Almost every page of this web site should pass at least the W3C WCAG WAI-A machine tests  and complies, we believe, with most, if not all of the obligatory subjective qualifications. We also believe that most pages comply with at least all the priority 1 guidelines of the W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This is a minimum level of compliance, with the exception of those pages which fail XHTML validation indicated above, we would expect all, but those pages listed below, to achieve 'AAA' or Priority 1, 2 and 3 in the automated accessibility tests.  Other accessibility validators used were 'Cynthia ' and the 'Functional Accessibility Evaluator ' from the University of Illinois.
    Whilst we appreciate the difference between passing automatic tests and real-life accessibility, we have made considerable efforts in that direction and hope we have a site which is accessible to most people.

    If you feel that there are other pages on this web site which do not comply or if your feel there are things we can do to improve accessibility further then please contact us.