Accessibility
In order to make this site accessible to a wide audience we have placed great emphasis on testing this site with a range of people to ensure a better experience for all users and all technologies. However, we welcome any comments, suggestions or feedback you have for us so please free to.
Access Keys
We have chosen not to install access keys in this site for the reason that it may conflict with personal access keys you may have set up on your computer. We hope you’ll find our site easy to navigate.
Upgrade Your Browser
We have made every effort to ensure most aspects of our site work across different platforms and browsers. However, there may be times when we have been unable to provide this level of accessibility with legacy browsers. Below is a list of suggested browsers available to download from external sites. Netscape is not listed here as it has recently been discontinued, and is no longer a supported browser platform.
To come up with our list of browsers that our site will support, we have used the Yahoo Graded Support list(opens in new window), as it is an up to date and reliable source of information on compatibility and popularity.
- Firefox(opens in new window)
- Google Chrome(opens in new window)
- Internet Explorer(opens in new window)
- Safari(opens in new window)
Please note Academy takes no responsibility for issues caused from installing third party applications.
Using Your Browser
Most browsers have several options to make websites more readable if required. Please see under each browser below to help change font type, size and colour, clear your history, and utilise tabbed browsing.
- Firefox for Windows (29.0)(opens in new window)
- Firefox for Mac (29.0)(opens in new window)
- Google Chrome for PC/Mac (35.0)(opens in new window)
- Internet Explorer – IE8(opens in new window)
- Internet Explorer IE9 / IE10 / IE11(opens in new window)
- Safari for PC (5.0)(opens in new window)
- Safari for Mac (7.0)
Firefox for Windows (29.0)
Font Type
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pallet > Click the Options cog > Content > Default Font > ‘Select from drop-down’. For this to work, you will first have to override our site styles by clicking doing the following: Menu button > Options > Content > Fonts & Colors > Advanced > Deselect ‘Allow pages to choose their own fonts rather than my selections above’
Zoom
- View (Ensure you have the ‘menu bar’ activated) > Zoom > ‘select’
- OR Ctrl ‘scroll mouse wheel’
- OR Ctrl +/-
- To zoom text only: View > Zoom > Zoom text only > (then one of the above)
- Crtl 0 to reset
Font Colour
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pallet > Click the Options cog > Content > Fonts & Colors > Colors > ‘Make selection from Colors panel ‘. For this to work, you will first have to override our site styles by: Menu button > Options > Content > Fonts & Colors > Advanced > Deselect ‘Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above’
Clear History
- History (Ensure you have the ‘menu bar’ activated) > Clear Recent History > ‘Select from drop-down’ > Clear Now
Tabbed Browsing
- Right-click on a link > Click ‘Open a Link in a New Tab’
- OR Click the + sign to the right of a recently opened tab
- OR Ctrl T
For More Reading
- Go to – http://support.mozilla.org
Firefox for Mac (29.0)
Font Type
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pallet > Click the Options cog > Content > Default Font > ‘Select from drop-down’. For this to work, you will first have to override our site styles by: Menu button > Options > Content > Fonts & Colors > Advanced > Deselect ‘Allow pages to choose their own fonts rather than my selections above’
Zoom
- View > Zoom > ‘select’
- OR Ctrl ‘scroll mouse wheel’
- OR Ctrl +/-
- To zoom text only: View > Zoom > Zoom text only > (then one of the above)
- Cmd 0 to reset
Font Colour
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pallet > Click the Options cog > Content > Fonts & Colors > Colors > ‘Make selection from Colors panel ‘. For this to work, you will first have to override our site styles by: Menu button > Options > Content > Fonts & Colors > Advanced > Deselect ‘Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above’
Clear History
- History (Ensure you have the ‘menu bar’ activated) > Clear Recent History > ‘Select from drop-down’ > Clear Now
Tabbed Browsing
- Right-click on a link > Click ‘Open a Link in a New Tab’
- OR Click the + sign to the right of a recently opened tab
- OR Ctrl T
For More Reading
- Go to – http://support.mozilla.org
Google Chrome for PC/MAC (35.0)
Font Type
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pane > Select settings > Content > Click ‘Show advanced settings’ >Scroll to ‘Web Content’ and click the ‘Customize fonts…’ button > Choose setting from the ‘Fonts & encoding pane
Font Size
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pane > Select settings > Content > Click ‘Show advanced settings’ > Scroll to ‘Web Content’ and click the ‘Font size’ button > Choose required setting
Clear History
- Click the Menu Button (3 horizontal bars) which opens the menu pane > History > Clear browsing data… > Choose required settings
Tabbed Browsing
- Right-click on a link > Click ‘Open a Link in a New Tab’
- OR Click the icon (rhombus) to the right of a recently opened tab
- OR Ctrl T
For More Reading
Safari for PC (5.0)
Font Type
- Click on Cog icon (top right corner) > Preference > Appearance > ‘select font type’
Font Size (doesn’t increase size, instead zooms page in)
- Click on Cog icon (top right corner) > Customize Toolbar > drag the ‘Zoom’ button onto your toolbar.
- OR Ctrl ‘scroll mouse wheel’ to zoom in page
- OR Ctrl +/-
Turn Off Images
- Click on Cog icon (top right corner) > Preference > Appearance > Deselect ‘Display images when the page opens’
Clear History
- Click on Cog icon (top right corner) > Reset Safari > Uncheck all but “Clear history” > Reset
- OR Click on Cog icon (top right corner) > History > Click on any webpage > Ctrl + A > Press Delete
Tabbed Browsing
- Right-click a link > Click ‘open link in new tab’
- OR Ctrl + T
- OR Click on the Document Icon (top right corner) > New Tab
For More Reading
- Go to – http://www.apple.com/safari/
Safari for MAC (7.0)
Font Type
- Safari > Preference > Appearance > ‘select font type’
Font Size (doesn’t increase size, instead zooms page in)
- view > select ‘zoom text only’
- OR Ctrl ‘scroll mouse wheel’ to zoom in page
- OR Ctrl +/-
- Ctrl 0 to reset
Turn Off Images
- Safari > Preference > Appearance > Deselect ‘Display images when the page opens’
Clear History
- History > Clear History
- OR Safari > Reset Safari > Uncheck all but “Clear history” > Reset
Tabbed Browsing
- Right-click a link > Click ‘open link in new tab’
- OR Ctrl + T
- OR File > New Tab
For More Reading
- Go to – http://www.apple.com/safari/
Further help
If your browser isn’t covered here, or you would like more in-depth information, visit My Web my Way, an online guide that explains the various accessibility features provided by your web browser.
Features of the site
Descriptive link text
When the author of a site uses descriptive link text, all links on the page will make sense even when read out of context. For users of assistive technology (e.g. Screen-readers) this can allow them to quickly jump through pages of text to find relevant links.
Meaningful ALT attribute on images
Most images on this site contain additional ‘alternate’ text that is stored with the image. This allows users who otherwise wouldn’t be able to see the image access to the stored information. Although this can help users of assistive technology (e.g. Screen-readers), this also applies to visitors who disable images because of a slow internet connection.
Any image that is considered purely decorative will have a blank alternate text (e.g. alt=””). This reduces the amount of unnecessary content on the page.
