Website Accessibility
How we try to make our website accessible for everyone, and how you can get the best experience from our website.
Our website has been designed, developed and tested alongside people with a learning disability , their parents, carers and family members. We want it to be accessible for everyone, no matter what device or assistive technology you are using. Click on each of the headings below to find out more about the different parts of the website.
Easy read documents
We try to make all our website content as easy to read as possible, but we also produce easy read versions of all important information that you might want to print off.
Accessible formats
We aim to present all important information as HTML webpages, but often we create guides and easy read documents that you can download and print. These are in PDF (Portable Document Format) and Word document format.
If you have any problems downloading or reading these files, you may need to download additional software:
- If you can’t open a PDF file try downloading the latest Adobe Reader software
- If you can’t open a Word document try downloading the latest Word viewer software.
Language
We want to make sure that the language we use on the website is Plain English. No jargon, no unnecessary language, just simple and useful information.
Visual communication
We use icons, images, videos and colour-coding on the website to help illustrate the text. This decision came out of many focus groups and interviews with people with a learning disability about the kind of website they wanted to use.
Larger text size and images
We’ve designed our website with large font sizes to make text easier to read. If you would like to increase it further, this BBC guide shows you how you can increase text size in your browser settings.
The BBC has also produced a guide about how to magnify your screen within your browser.
You can also zoom in to magnify the text and images on the page by using the ‘View’menu in your browser, or by pressing ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’ on the keyboard to zoom in and ‘Ctrl’and ‘-‘ to zoom out.
Change background or text colour
We know that some people find it easier to read text when the background and font are certain colours.
For example, dark green text on a pale yellow background can be easier to read if you have dyslexia. You can download free fonts like Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic. Many browsers now enable you to change the colour of the background and text of your screen. This guide by the BBC shows you how to choose your own colours.
Heading structure
We have addressed issues with our heading structure to make sure that all pages of our website follow a logical order and are easier to navigate.
Link text
When we add links in text, we make sure that the link text clearly describes the destination of that link or the action that clicking on the link will allow you to do.
This is so that you end up exactly where you want to.
Video content
All videos on the website are hosted on Youtube and embedded in the web page.
We add captions to the videos on our website so that they can be followed easily.
Assistive technology
If you use assistive technology, like a screen-reader, we want to make sure that our website’s technology and content works together to give you the best possible experience.
Our website will be compatible with:
- screenreaders
- screen magnifiers
- speech recognition software on your device.
Browsers we support
Our website supports the latest versions of the following browsers, broken down by operating system:
- Windows: Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer
- Mac OS X: Chrome, Firefox and Safari
- iOS: Safari and Chrome
- Android: Chrome.
The following browsers are now out of date:
- Internet Explorer 11
- Safari 9
- Opera 34.
If you use one of these browsers we would recommend that you upgrade to the latest version or switch to a different browser like Chrome for a better experience.
More accessibility features
The BBC has produced a series of accessibility guides on how to change your computer and browser settings to make websites more accessible for you.
For example, you can make your computer speak text aloud, make the mouse easier to see, and make your keyboard easier to use. Go to accessibility guides.
