Access Keys

If your browser supports access keys, you can use the following shortcuts. For example, to go to the home page, press control-h.

  • Home
  • Menus
  • This accessibility page

Other access keys can be used wherever you see single underlined letters, like this. (That one doesn't work, by the way.)

A note on accessibility...

This site has been designed using web standards. This means that the content on the site is viewable by all browsers, on all kinds of internet device, by all sorts of people.

Web standards are set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (the people who 'invented' the Web) to make sure that all the information on the internet is accessible to everyone.

If you are using a browser that is not standards-compliant (like Netscape 4, for example) then this site will appear with a relatively plain layout. All the text is readable as normal, however. This is the whole point of web standards: it means that even if you have a browser that is old and simple, you can still see the information the site is offering. More modern browsers will see the site as it is meant to be seen, with colours, columns, bells, whistles etc.

Without web standards, old browsers sometimes display pages wrongly, often meaning that the site is inaccessible. This is particularly important for people who use the Web with unusual browsers. Those using braille or speech readers - which don't show the layout of the site, only the text - can rely on being able to accurately represent a site designed with web standards. Often, sites that aren't designed in this way simply don't make sense to non-visual browsers, and this isn't just inconvenient... it's actually against the law. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 stresses the need for educational institutions to provide services and information for disabled people, such that

"disabled students are not placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with students who are not disabled."

This means, for instance, that if a website isn't just as readable by a blind person as it is by a sighted person, laws are being broken.

So, this site uses web standards, aiming to be as useable and accessible to a text-only browser (or mobile phone, or ancient computer) as it is to any one else. If it doesn't manage it, if you have any problems, suggestions or comments, please email.