Help

Helping you to use our site

Website Accessibility

We want our website to be as user-friendly as is reasonably possible.

The information below regarding accessibility sets out our intended standards.

Because the Accessibility functions are tricky, please let us know if we haven't got it right.

Access Keys and Site Navigation

Access Keys are shortcut keys that will take you to commonly used pages of the website without needing to use your mouse.

Access Keys have been defined for the main functions of this website. They are displayed inside square brackets next to menu choices, eg. [H] next to Home, as well as main topics on individual pages.

The majority of browsers support Access Keys, but unfortunately, differ in how they handle them, so check your browser's Help file.

Just to help (for PC Windows):
  In Opera 7+ browser press SHIFT+ESC, release those keys, and then press your chosen key.
  In Firefox 2+ browser press ALT+SHIFT+ chosen key.
  In IE browser press ALT+chosen key, release those keys, and then ENTER.

  • Access key 0 (zero) - Skip page logo and navigation, and jump directly to first content on a page.
  • Access key ? or / - Help and FAQ page (this page)
  • Access key B - Purchases page
  • Access key C - Contact us and Feedback page
  • Access key H - Home page
  • Access key S - Advanced Search page
  • Access key 1 (one) - Jump to content (labelled number [1]) on the current page, or [2] or [3], etc

Use of Javascript

  • Javascript is used to control our "Float-Menu" but if Javascript is disabled, there is an alternative static menu provided.
  • Javascript is not used to dynamically create web pages.
  • Our forms used for Purchases at present rely on Javascript being enabled, and show a warning if that is not so (as well as disabling the form's "Submit" button).
  • All links have TITLE attributes that show as "tips" when the mouse cursor hovers over them.
  • All images are accompanied by descriptive ALT and TITLE attributes, which show as "tips" when the mouse cursor hovers over them.
  • All tables have a SUMMARY attribute for use by screen readers. The Summary describes the function of a table and the relationship between its rows and columns.
  • All forms have LABEL tags to associate entry fields and their labels, for use by screen readers

Tabbing

Various "landmark" items on some webpages have a tabindex attribute defined for them to help determine the order these "landmarks" are selected with each press of the Tab key. This is especially so for the items in a form, eg our Information Request form.

Printing

Our site has been designed to be "printer friendly".  This means that when you use the print function of your browser to print the current webpage, you should receive a printout with the webpage's content nicely displayed on the printed page, with no truncation of text, and sensible page breaks.  When you print any of our forms, input fields will be displayed empty where appropriate.  Printed pages will not contain any site navigation (menus) nor search facility information.  However, we will still show our logo, and the copyright line from our site footer.

Still not answered your query?

If we haven't managed to answer your query or provide the necessary assistance, please contact us, as we want to know how we can improve our site.

Please send us an email, giving as many details as possible.