We recommend Mozilla Firefox as the best all-round browser. This is free and open source (see 'The Digital Divide' below), and it has a variety of accessibility features and plugins (for example to increase the size of text simply press Ctrl and the + key)

Other browsers with special accessibility features include:

1. JAWS is a screen reader – software that translates text into spoken word. For Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
2. Home Page Reader , another screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
3. Lynx is a free text-only web browser often used by blind users, with refreshable Braille displays.
4. Links , another free text-only web browser. These are also useful for people with slow internet connections.
5. Opera , a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.
6. AIS, a free Web Accessibility Toolbar for Internet Explorer including text sizing, css options, and other tools.

We have come to a strange and unfortunate situation today where most people who use computers think that Microsoft (or occasionally Apple) make all the best software. Quite apart from being misleading, this creates a problem for many people who can't afford to buy the expensive products sold by these companies (hence the Digital Divide between rich and poor).

There is a real alternative in the growing area of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). There are several advantages to this software:

• It's free ;-)
• It's often better than the expensive alternatives
• There are friendly communities of people who will give you free advice about using this software
• There are technical reasons why FOSS is a good thing - check out the website Sourceforge.net for more information

Wherever possible Advocacy Action uses FOSS software. This page is being written on a computer running on the Ubuntu Linux operating system with entirely FOSS software. We also use the Open Office software suite whenever possible (which is almost all the time because it's much better than MS Office).

More information about good free software can be found on these websites:

• Mozilla – home of the Firefox internet browser and the Thunderbird email programme (which we also use)
• OpenOffice - presentation program, word processor, database etc. package
• The GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Programme is a versatile graphics package
• Wordpress - Blog software
• nVu - Web editing software
• Amaya - the W3C's own web browsing and editing software which is also a web standards checker
• Linux Format Magazine is a magazine that obviously concentrates on the Linux operating system, but also has a lot of good information about FOSS software available for this platform

We have tried to make our documents easy to read by making them available in pdf format. pdf stands for Portable Document Format and is a common and usually accessible way of sharing information. All documents in this format have the Adobe Reader symbol next to them.

Most computers can open these files automatically, but if you have any problems you can download Adobe Reader for free by clicking here or on the image link below.

1. All pages on this site are WAI AA approved , complying with all priority 1 and priority 2 guidelines of the W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. All pages on this site are also Hermish AAA, and Section 508 approved, complying with all guidelines of the U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines. This is always a judgement call; many accessibility features can be measured, but many can't. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance
2. All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict. This is not a judgement call; a program can determine with 100% accuracy whether a page is valid XHTML
3. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. h2 tags are used for main titles, h3 tags for subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing Alt+Insert+3

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We have used colour to make this site easier to read. We chose green because it is fresh and calming. We use a pale green background with dark green text because this makes the contrast less of a strain on your eyes. We underline all the links to other pages, and make them bold. We also highlight links when you place your mouse over them to make them even easier to see. We have used a consistent navigation system that can be accessed by the Menu bar on the left. Notes at the top of each page let you know where you are and help people who are navigating the site with screen readers or other accessibility software.

This site and all its archives use cascading style sheets (CSS) for visual layout. We have used relative sizes in our layouts, so the pages will dynamically adjust to your computer screen. We have also used colours from the limited 'websafe' colour list to ensure consistency across different computers.

It is probably still worth noting that we designed the site using monitors set at a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. We did test the pages at lower resolutions and they worked, but we prefer higher resolutions when possible.

1. Internet Explorer has a limited text resizing feature ("View" menu, "Text Size"), but it only works with relative font sizes.
2. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.

1. Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
2. Whever possible, links are written to make sense out of context. Many browsers (such as JAWS, Home Page Reader, Lynx, and Opera) can extract the list of links on a page and allow the user to browse the list, separately from the page.
3. Link text is never duplicated; two links with the same link text always point to the same address.
4. There are no " javascript: " pseudo-links. All links can be followed in any browser, even if scripting is turned off.
5. There are no links that open new windows without warning.

1. All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.

We occasionally use acronyms and abbreviations on this site. We try to define each instance with the appropriate HTML tag, although some older software does not support the HTML markup. Here is a complete list of all the acronyms and abbreviations you may see throughout this site:

CSS - Cascading Style Sheet
CYPSP - Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership
FSA - Financial Services Authority
HTML - Hyper-Text Mark Up Language
IPS - Industrial & Provident Society
ICRA - Internet Content Rating Association
IMCA - Independent Mental Capacity Advocate
LDPB - Learning Disability Partnership Board
NHS - National Health Service
PALS - Patient Advice and Liaison Service
PCT - Primary Care Trust
SS&H - Social Services and Health (WMDC)
SWYMHT - South and West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative
WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
WMDC - Wakefield Metropolitan District Council
WPCT - Wakefield Primary Care Trust (NHS)
XHTML - Extensible Hyper-Text Markup Language

1. W3 accessibility guidelines , which explains the reasons behind each guideline.
2. W3 accessibility techniques , which explains how to implement each guideline.
3. W3 accessibility checklist , a busy developer's guide to accessibility.
4. U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines .

1. The RNIB's Web Access Centre is a comprehensive resource for information about designing accessible web pages (and accessing them for people with disabilities). The RNIB is the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
2. Bobby , a free service to analyze web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.
3. HTML Validator , a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
4. Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer , a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
5. Lynx Viewer , a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.