We are aiming to make our website accessible by following certain standards and Government guidelines to ensure that it can be used by everyone and anyone.

The website has been designed to comply with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's 'AA' standard.

To understand more about the accessibility guidelines, we recommend that you check out the following links:

• Web standards can be found at the external 'World Wide Web Consortium' website.
• Complying with standards on our 'Web Standards' page.

If you would like to discuss our approach to accessibility on the site, please feel free to make a comment or pass on any suggestions, by us using the feedback form.

Web Standards

We are aiming to make this website accessible by following certain standards and Government guidelines to ensure that it can be used by everyone.

The site has been designed to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's 'AA' standard. You can read more about this standard on the World Wide Web Consortium website.

Text Size

You can change the text size using the 'page options button' that appear at the top left of every page on the site.

Also, using settings within your web browser you will have the ability to increase or decrease the text that is displayed on the web page. We have developed a comphrensive page with guides you through the process of changing text size in various web browsers.

External Links

We have decided to standarised on the way that you open links to different websites from the South Lakes Housing website.

Although opening a link in a new window may appear to be the best way of linking to an external site, research (supported by the W3C) has shown that opening new windows can be more disorientating and less user friendly. This means that when you access an external website, the site will load in the same window from where you clicked on the link.

To return back to this website, you simply use the back arrow buttons on the top of the toolbar or type in the South Lakes Housing web address [www.southlakeshousing.co.uk] in the address bar.

Reading PDFs Out Loud

Adobe Acrobat Read Out Loud Menu

The Adobe Acrobat Read Out Loud Menu - Click for Larger Image

Adobe Acrobat Documents (PDFs) can be read out loud by your computer if you have version 6.0 or above of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. To read a document out loud select 'View' from the menu followed by 'Read Out Loud'.

The 'Read Out Loud' menu has the following four options which can also be accessed via shortcut keys:

Shortcut Keys:

• Read this page only : Shift+Control+V
• Read to end of document : Shift+Control+B
• Pause the information : Shift+Control+C
• Stop the information : Shift+Control+E