This web site follows the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative's (WAI) Guidelines.

Access keys for keyboard navigation

This web site supports the use of access keys, which helps you to navigate the site using keyboard shortcuts.

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts available on the site to help you to navigate around more easily. By using the relevant combination of keys you can quickly move between the main areas of the site.

The following access keys have been defined for the web site.

• 0 - Accessibility
• 1 - Home page
• 2 - About Council
• 3 - Services
• 4 - The Area
• 5 - A to Z
• 6 - Contact Us
• 7 - Sitemap
• 8 - Help
• 9 - Terms and Conditions

To use an access key, PC users use the ALT key and press the appropriate letter or number as defined in the table above. Mac users use the Control (CTRL) key and the appropriate letter or number. Once selected you may have to press the return or enter key to activate the link.

Text size

Some people may wish to view this Web site in larger text size. To do this you will need to adjust your browser settings.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Select the "View" menu in the browser tool bar, select "Text size" and select your required size - either larger or smaller.

Mozilla family browser (Firefox etc)

Select the "View" menu in the browser tool bar, select "text size" then choose to either "Increase Font" or “Decrease Font” until the text is the required size.

You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Increase text-size: Ctrl +
Decrease text-size: Ctrl -

Changing colours

Changing the site's background colour can be particularly useful for users who rely on magnification technology as white can produce an uncomfortable glare.

It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site. Both can be achieved by changing preferences in your browser:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Select the "Tools" menu, select "Internet Options", select "Colors" and make changes to text and background colours in the Colors panel. Then choose the "Accessibility" button and tick the box labelled "Ignore colours specified on Web".

Mozilla Family Browser (Firefox etc)

Select the "Tools" menu, select "Options", open the "Content" tab and select "Colors". You can define the colour of text and background from here.

Viewing PDFs (Portable Document Format)

Many of the Council's leaflets and application forms are available on the site for downloading. Most of these documents are in PDF format which means they can only be viewed using Adobe Reader. This software is available free of charge from the Adobe Web site.

• Download Adobe Reader

Adobe offers useful resources and tools to aid the accessibility of PDFs, these can be accessed via the Access Adobe website. There is also an online conversion tool for PDFs.

Listening to the website – ReadSpeaker XT

Users can choose to have the website read to them using ReadSpeaker XT software. This function allows blind or visually impaired users to access all the available information on the website by allowing the ReadSpeaker software to read the content aloud to them.

This function can be accessed as follows:

Find the page you want to have read to you then click on the listen icon at the top of the page, or use access key “L”. This will automatically open up the ReadSpeaker XT software. You can then choose whether to “Read Text”, “Read Links” or “Stop”.  The settings can also be amended so that the speed and volume of the audio can be adjusted to suit your preference. A text only version is also available, and the colour of the text and background can be changed to suit your needs.

Listening to PDFs – Read Out Loud

The latest version of Adobe Reader, version 7, comes with the ability to read the PDF content to you.
This function, known as “Read Out Loud”, can be accessed as follows:

Open the PDF you want read to you in Adobe Reader 7, go to the "View" menu and select "Read Out Loud". You will then have the option to "Read This Page Only" or "Read To End Of Document".