Accessibility statement

This website is run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) which is a non-departmental public body (NDPB); one of the seven Research Councils in the UK.

This page states our intention to provide a website that is usable and accessible to all and details some of the measures taken. This website's objective on accessibility is to conform to the Guidelines for UK Government Websites (link opens in a new window), which support the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (link opens in a new window) at Level AA. These are to ensure that we achieve and maintain an appropriate Web accessibility standard and that our web sites are inclusive.

This accessibility statement applies only to the Science and Technology Facilities Council websites and relates to all new and reviewed public facing websites, but does not apply to any other site, including:

Legacy websites operated by or for STFC
Other websites operated for STFC by partner organisations
Other government departments, research councils and agencies
Any site that is linked from one of our pages

Please note, some sections of this web site are controlled by third parties and so it has not been possible for the same standards of accessibility to be applied to them.

We are making every effort to make STFC's websites accessible, including layout, and easy to use for everyone, no matter what browser you choose to use, and whether or not you have any disabilities.

PDFs

Most complex Adobe® Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF) files on this site added after November 2008 are tagged to allow basic accessibility pre-existng PDFs will be tagged on request.

For more information and help about accessibility and changing your browser settings please visit the BBC's My Web, My Way (link opens in a new window) pages.

More information about PDF accessibility can be found on the Adobe website accessibility section (link opens in a new window).

To download a copy of Acrobat reader, please visit the acrobat download page (link opens in a new window) on the Adobe website.

If you require any further help and advice regarding assistive software and hardware, please contact the Shaw Trust (link opens in a new window).

Access Keys

STFC use a subset of the UK Government Access Keys standard.

S - Skip navigation (go straight to content)
1 - Home page
2 - What's new / latest news
3 - Site map
4 - Search
5 - Terms of use
6 - Help
7 - Complaints procedure
8 - Contacts
9 - Feedback
0 - Acesss key details

Acronyms

A list of commonly used acronyms has been provided to help users follow the content more effectively.

Navigating using access keys differs from browser to browser.

How to use access keys in your browser, for:

Internet Explorer 5+ - Hold down the Alt key, press the number of the access key, release both keys then press the Enter key.
Internet Explorer 4 - Hold down the Alt key and press the number of the access key
Internet Explorer 5+ (Mac) - Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key
Firefox 2+ - Hold down the Shift and Alt keys then press the number of the access key
Firefox 1 - 1.5.x, Mozilla, Seamonkey - Hold down the Alt key and press the number of the access key
Firefox, Mozilla, Seamonkey (Mac) - Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key
Opera - Hold down the Shift key and press Escape, release both keys, then press the number of the accesskey
Safari (Mac) - Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key

The use of access keys is controversial. They can conflict with other software shortcuts and some accessibility experts advise against their use. We welcome feedback, particularly from disabled people, on your experience using access keys on this website.

Changing font size

The font size can be changed using the usual <ctrl>+/<ctrl>- key combinations or using the <ctrl> key and the scroll wheel on a suitable mouse.

Links

Some links, especially those before April 2007, have the url as part of the link text. We have kept these links as short as possible and are in the process of updating them.

Contact Information

Maintaining an accessible site is an ongoing process and we are continually working to offer a user friendly experience. However, if you have any problems using this web site please contact us by email dlsafety@stfc.ac.uk.

Page last updated: 27 July 2011 by Gareth Baker