Web accessibility guide

Many internet users with disabilities find websites difficult or even impossible to use simply because of the way they are designed. We have a responsibility under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Act (SENDA) to ensure our pages are accessible to all, and we take this responsibility very seriously.

We work hard to ensure our site is compatible with various types of adaptive technology used by people with disabilities. Our templates are designed to reach compliance with World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative (W3CWAI) Priority Two (AA) and some Priority Three (AAA) success criteria, which means that the code they are written in should display correctly in current and future browsers. It also means that, using tools within your own browser, you can tailor how you view our website to suit your needs.

Our aim is to meet the accepted standards and guidelines - if you come across a part of our site that is difficult to use, we apologise and would be grateful if you could email us. Your feedback is an invaluable part of the process of improving our site.

Nottingham Trent University is not responsible for the content of external websites.

1. Changing the text size and magnifying the screen

Most web browsers include the functionality to increase or decrease text size in order to make it easier to read, some include the functionality to magnify the entire content of a web page and some include both features. Please follow the instructions for the browser you are using.

Internet Explorer 7 and 8

Click on the 'Page' icon in the menu bar, then select 'Text size' and choose your preferred text size.
Click on the 'Page' icon in the menu bar, then select 'Text size' and choose 'Zoom in', 'Zoom out' or your preferred percentage increase or decrease.

Internet Explorer 6
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, then select 'Text size' and choose your preferred text size.

Mozilla Firefox

Click on 'View' in the menu bar, then select 'Text size' and choose 'Increase' or 'Decrease'.
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, then select 'Zoom' and choose 'Zoom in' or 'Zoom out'.

Google Chrome
Click on the 'Page' icon in the menu bar, then select 'Zoom' and choose 'Larger', 'Normal' or 'Smaller'.

Opera
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, then select 'Zoom' and your preferred percentage increase or decrease.

Safari
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, then select 'Make text bigger' or 'Make text smaller'.

You can also increase the text size within the NTU website:

Look for the three capital letter As in the top right-hand corner of the NTU page.
Click on the letter A with the font size that best suits your needs.

2. Creating a plain layout version of our website

For a plain layout version of our website, you can switch off the stylesheet. This changes the text to black on a white background (unless your browser settings specify otherwise) and displays it in a single column, as well as removing any background images (but leaving content). Please follow the instructions for the browser you are using.

Internet Explorer
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, select 'Style' then 'No style'.

Mozilla Firefox
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, select 'Page style' then 'No style'.

Opera
Click on 'View' in the menu bar, select 'Style' then 'User mode'.

3. Tailoring the font and background colours

Many browsers provide functionality to set different aspects of font and colour. Below are examples of how to access this functionality. Please follow the instructions for the browser you are using.

Internet Explorer

Click on 'Tools' in the menu bar and select 'Internet options'. Select 'Accessibility' and check 'Ignore colours specified by webpages'.
To further customise webpage colours from 'Internet options' select 'Colours' and un-check 'Use Windows colours'. You can now customise font, background, visited links and unvisited links.

Mozilla Firefox
Click on 'Tools' in the menu bar and select 'Options' ('Firefox' > 'Preferences' on Mac). Select the 'Content' tab and select 'Colours' to customise webpage colours.

Opera
Click on 'Tools' in the menu bar ('Opera' on Mac) and select 'Preferences'. Select the 'Webpages' tab, you can now customise font, background and link colours.