Text to speech using  Reachdeck
The Reachdeck button (figure of a person) is at the bottom of the screen on all our web pages and it will open the toolbar if you click on it.

It is an online screen reader to help anyone who would prefer to listen to the content on our website rather than read it. It is special software which reads the text on the screen and speaks those words to you out loud. When it is running, you simply need to move the mouse over some text on our web page, click on the icon that appears and the text is read out to you.

Reachdeck is only a text reader and should not be confused with screen reading software for the blind. This is because it requires some degree of vision and the ability to move the mouse pointer.

Once the software is installed on your computer you will be able to listen to any website offering the Reachdeck service as well as our website.

Temporarily change the size of text on your screen
You can also use your keyboard, or keyboard and middle mouse wheel (if you have one), to change the size of the text when viewing text using most browsers.
Larger text: [Ctrl] and [+] or [Ctrl] and mouse wheel forward.
Smaller text: [Ctrl] and [-] or [Ctrl] and mouse wheel back.

The above method will make everything on screen larger/smaller including images.

Permanently changing the size of text in your computer settings
You can also change the setting on your computer, or through your browser, so that you always have the size of font that you prefer for all websites. You can change it back again any time you wish.

You will find instructions on how to change the size of the font on both your PC and browser here https://www.w3.org/WAI/meta/customize/

Downloadable Documents
A number of downloadable documents available within this site are in Portable Document Format (often referred to as PDF).
In order to view a PDF document, you need free software called Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from the Adobe web site by following the link: https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

If you use a screen reading program which synthesizes text as audible speech you may experience difficulty reading PDF files.

The Adobe website provides online tools to convert PDF documents into Word documents.