Accessibility

Recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS contain many accessibility features that can assist computer users that are blind or vision impaired. This accessibility guide is provided to assist in accessing these features.

Adjusting the text size

Internet Explorer – Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Go to the ‘View’ pull-down menu
Go to ‘Text Size’
A pop-up menu should appear showing you five different text sizes. Select ‘Larger’ or ‘Largest’ to make the text larger. This will also increase the size on many other Internet sites

Internet Explorer - Windows Vista

Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard
Press the ‘+’ key to make the text bigger or the ‘-’ key to make the text smaller
Keep repeating step 2 until the text is at a suitable size

Safari – Mac OS

Hold down the ‘Apple’ key and press the ‘+’ key
Repeat until the text is at a suitable large

Adjusting the colours:

Internet Explorer – Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista

Go to the ‘Tools’ pull-down menu
Select ‘Internet Options’
In the bottom-left hand corner you will see a ‘Colors’ button. Select this button
Select the colours that you want by selecting the current colour and then select a new colour
Select OK on the ‘Colors’ screen
Select OK on the ‘Internet Optons’ screen

Safari – Mac OS

The easiest way to change the colours is to use the built-in ‘reverse’ feature in Mac OS 10.4 Tiger or higher. This will reverse all colours on the screen. This option can be selected by holding down the ‘CTRL’, ‘Option’ and ‘Apple’ keys while pressing the number ‘8’
Repeat step 1 to change the colours back to normal

Text-to-speech access:

Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista:

You can purchase an additional software program such as JAWS which will allow your computer to read aloud web pages to you. For more information, please contact us.

Mac OS:

Mac OS 10.4 Tiger and higher have a built-in program called VoiceOver which can read aloud text on your computer screen, including web pages. To turn on VoiceOver, hold down the ‘Apple’ key and press the ‘F5’ key. Further information about VoiceOver can be obtained from Apple web site www.apple.com