Accessibility features

Access keys

Some web browsers enable navigation links to be followed using keyboard access keys instead of a mouse. To use an access key, hold down the ALT key and press the appropriate letter. Then press RETURN to go to the desired page.

The following access keys are available throughout this website.

c – Content

n – Main navigation

a – Accessibility features

s – Sitemap

d – Acknowledgements

f – About this site

g – About QIA

1 – Home

2 – Data representation

3 – General

4 – Hardware

5 – Internet/web

6 – Managing data

7 – Multimedia

8 – Networks and communications technology

9 – Programming

0 – Security

q – Software

w – Systems design

e – My downloads

 

Changing the appearance of the screen

You can alter the accessibility of these pages by changing the on-screen appearance of the text and background. Below are some suggestions. Note that all are reversible and do not affect images.

 

The Microsoft Internet Explorer browser

To apply the font and colour changes
  1. on the View / Tools menu, select Internet Options
  2. on the General tab, select Accessibility
  3. make sure that each of the three formatting instruction boxes show ticks.
Changing the font

Using a sans serif font (such as Arial), rather than a serif font (such as Times New Roman) can make text easier to read.

  1. on the View / Tools menu, select Internet Options
  2. on the General tab, select Fonts in the Proportional and Fixed-width font lists,
  3. select the fonts you would like to use.
Displaying text larger or smaller

You can increase or decrease text size from the text size option in the View menu.

Changing text and background colours

Certain combinations of fonts, typefaces and background colours can sometimes make text difficult to read. You can change these settings by choosing your own preferred, clearer colour scheme - black text on a yellow background gives the most contrast:

  1. on the View / Tools menu, select Internet Options
  2. on the General tab, select Colors
  3. select the tick box labelled Use Windows Colors
  4. select Text, and select the colour you want. Select OK
  5. select Background, and select the colour you want to use. Select OK.
To close images
  1. on the View / Tools menu, select Internet Options
  2. on the Advanced tab, scroll down to Multimedia
  3. select Show pictures to remove the tick
  4. select Apply, and then select OK.
To change the size of the window
  1. select Full Screen on the toolbar.
There are more options to make these pages easier to read, such as removing animation and expanding text. To look at the other options:
  1. on the View / Tools menu, select Internet Options
  2. select the Advanced tab
  3. choose the options you would like.

 

The Netscape Navigator 4.x browser

To change the settings
Changing the font
  1. on the Edit menu, select Preferences
  2. select Appearance
  3. select Font
  4. change the Variable Width Font and the Fixed Width Font to the type you prefer. (To use these fonts for future occaisions, select Use my default fonts overriding document specified fonts.)
Displaying text larger or smaller

You can increase or decrease text size from the text size option in the View menu.

Changing the colour of the text and the background
  1. select Appearance
  2. select Colours
  3. select Text, and choose the colour you would like to use
  4. select OK
  5. select Background, and choose a colour
  6. select OK
  7. select OK to close Preferences
    (To use these settings in future, select Always use my colours, overriding document.)
To close images
  1. select Edit
  2. select Preferences
  3. select Advanced
  4. remove the tick from the box marked Automatically load images
  5. select OK

The application is built using code compliant with W3C standards for XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets. The pages display correctly with currently available internet browsers, and the use of standard XHTML code means that future versions of browsers will also display them correctly.

W3C XHTML

W3C CSS

These pages conform to level AAA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

W3C WAI-AAA