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Accessibility

Browsealoud

Browsealoud reads web pages aloud for people who find it difficult to read online.

Browsealoud may be helpful to:

  • Anyone with low literacy skills or Dyslexia
  • People who don't have English as a first language
  • Those with some visual impairment
  • Anyone who would prefer to listen to text rather than read it.

The Browsealoud software is free. It can be downloaded onto your computer, which will let you hear the text on our site, and other Browsealoud-enabled sites, as spoken word.

You can find more information, and support for downloading and installing the software, on the Browsealoud website.

Translations

If you would like to translate this website into another language we recommend that you use either Microsoft Bing translator or Google translator.

Bing translates from English into 37 languages, and Google translates from English into 64 languages. To use either, copy the page web address that you want translated and paste it into the box indicated on the translator website.

Sanctuary Group is not responsible for the content of these websites and cannot guarantee the reliability of the translations provided.

Help with downloading documents

We currently use two types of files on our website. These files, and the software programmes you'll need to open them are detailed below.

If you need further assistance please contact us.

Adobe Acrobat and PDF files

Adobe Acrobat is a popular document exchange medium. It works on the principle that documents produced in most software packages can be transformed into a .pdf file (the Adobe Acrobat format) and then read by the free reader package available from Adobe called Adobe Acrobat Reader. A key advantage is that it preserves all the formatting of the original file, including images, font and layout.

To read the documents you must first download the reader software from the Adobe Website.

Adobe Acrobat reader as a helper application

You can add Acrobat Reader as a helper application to your browser so that it will launch automatically when you try to access a pdf file online.

Access Adobe

If you have a visual impairment you can find more information on accessibility and PDF files by visiting the Access Adobe Website.

DOC, XLS, PPT files and Microsoft (MS) Office

MS Office software programmes are widely used by business for editing information. They are:

  • MS Word - a text and content editor.
  • MS Excel - a spreadsheet used for figures and graphical representations.
  • MS Powerpoint -a presentation tool which shows picture and text information in a slideshow format.

If you do not have the MS Office programme you need, you can download a free 'viewer'. This is a piece of software that allows you to view, but not edit the file.

Download free viewers from the MS Office website:

If you still have questions or problems with the site, not answered or supported here, please get in contact with us, and we'll do our best to help out.

Controlling text and colours in your web browser

You can specify the font sizes, styles and colours and foreground and background colours of web pages displayed on your computer screen. This is useful if you have low vision, need larger fonts, or need high-contrast colours. You can set Internet Explorer to use the colours and fonts you specify, your default Windows colours and fonts, or the settings you specify in your own style sheet.

If you use Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers to view the Internet, the following guidelines will enable you to enlarge the size of the text and control the colours on your screen.

Internet Explorer

  1. Open your Internet Explorer web browser.
  2. Select 'Tools' from the menu at the top of your window.
  3. From the options which appear, select 'Internet Options...'.
  4. Click on the 'General' tab.
  5. Click on the button marked 'Accessibility'.
  6. To remove background and font colours, select the checkbox marked 'Ignore colours specified on Web pages'.
  7. Click 'OK' (and again if necessary).

Netscape

  1. Select 'Edit' from the menu at the top of the window and choose 'preferences'.
  2. Open the Appearance group and click the 'Colours' category.
  3. Select a colour button to change colours of text, background, unvisited links, or visited links.
  4. To override the colours used by the designer of the web page, select 'Always use my colours, overriding document'.
  5. Click 'OK'.
Browsealoud website