Help / Accessibility
Changing Settings
For more information on changing the settings on your computer or browser to make the web more accessible to you, visit the BBC – My Web My Way website.
Text Size
You may find that the text size on the page is too small or too big for you to read comfortably.
If you would like to change the size of the text to make it easier to read, please follow the step by step instructions below depending on your browser type.
Internet Explorer
- Click ‘View’ to open the View menu or press ‘Alt’ and ‘V’
- Select the ‘Text Size’ option or select by pressing ‘X’
- Choose your preferred text size using your mouse or use the up and down arrow keys
- Click to select the text size or press ‘Enter’
- The text size should change to reflect your choice
With Internet Explorer 7 and above you can make pages easier to read by magnifying the page (zooming in). If you zoom in, everything on the Web page is magnified (including text, images, and controls). Click the Magnifying glass icon IE zoom icon at the bottom right corner of the Internet Explorer window, or click on the arrow IE zoom arrow to the right to display a series of magnifications and click to choose one (see below).
Firefox
- Click ‘View’ to open the View menu
- Select the ‘Text Size’ option
- Select ‘Increase’ or ‘Decrease’
- The text on our site should change to reflect your choice
Internet Explorer and Firefox
In both Internet Explorer and Firefox, if you are using a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can increase and decrease the text size by holding down the ‘Ctrl’ key and rotating the wheel. You can also hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key and press ‘+’ to increase or ‘-‘ to decrease the text size.
Safari
- Click ‘View’ to open the View menu
- Click on ‘Make Text Bigger’ or ‘Make Text Smaller’ or to use the keyboard shortcuts select ‘Apple’ and ‘+’ (plus) or ‘Apple’ and ‘-‘ (minus)
- The text size on our site should change to reflect your choice
Text to Speech
If you would like to have this site’s pages read to you by your computer, you have a number of options, including:
- Download and install a Text to Speech program, such as Natural Reader – www.naturalreaders.com
- Download Opera browser and use its “Speak” options
Installation instructions are available on the respective websites.
Non-HTML Documents
Non-HTML documents can be Adobe PDF files, or Microsoft Word or Excel files.
A link to a non-HTML document will contain information about the type of document and its size, e.g. A Visitors Guide to the Council Meeting (97 KB PDF) or Local Authority Poverty – Proxy Figures (75 KB Excel).
Links containing this symbol – Opens in a new window symbol – open in a new browser window, e.g. Agenda – Social Work and Health – 20 May 2010 (35 KB PDF) Opens in a new window symbol.
Acrobat (PDF) Files
Many documents on this site are provided as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Adobe Reader is required to read these – this is free software which can be downloaded from Adobe’s website.
In most cases, the file size is shown immediately after the link to give an indication of how long the document will take to download.
Current versions of Adobe Reader have a built-in text to speech function which enables PDF documents to be read aloud. Visit the Adobe website for more details.
Word/Excel Documents
There are a very small number of Microsoft Word and Excel documents available on this site. Download Word Viewer or Excel Viewer to view these documents if you don’t have Word or Excel installed on your PC.