Accessibility - Browser Settings

If you are having difficulties viewing our pages, most browsers allow users to change the settings to alter the way pages are displayed, which may improve readability.

Most browsers allow you to:

• Ignore settings specified by a web page
• Change the size of the font
• Change the style of the font
• Change the colour of the font
• Change the background colour
• Stop images downloading (so they are not visible)

Internet Explorer

How to override font and colour settings:
From the browser menu, go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Internet Options'
Click on the 'Accessibility' option, which can be found under the 'General' tab.

You will see the following options:
Ignore colours specified on Web pages
Ignore font styles specified on Web pages
Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages
Tick the options that are appropriate to you.
Click 'OK'
Click 'OK' again to close the 'Internet Options' box

How to change the colour of the text and background:
From the browser menu, go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Internet Options'
Click on the 'Colours' option, which can be found under the 'General' tab
Untick the 'Use windows colours' option
Select your own text and background colours (black text on a yellow background provides the most contrast)

To change the colours of visited and unvisited links, click on the colours and select your preferred colour from the palette that appears
Click 'OK'
Click 'OK' again to close the 'Internet Options' box

How to change the font style:
From the browser menu, go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Internet Options'
Click on the 'Accessibility' option, which can be found under the 'General' tab
Tick the 'Ignore font styles specified on Web pages' option
Click 'OK'
Back at the 'General' tab, click 'Fonts'
From this screen you can change the way your pages display 'web page font' and 'plain text font.' Once you have chosen your required settings, click 'OK'
Click 'OK' again to close the 'Internet Options' box

How to change the font size:
Go to 'View' and select 'Text Size' and select the appropriate size text, e.g. 'largest'
Adjust as appropriate

How to stop images downloading:
This allows you to view only text and the page will load much faster
From the main menu, go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Internet Options'
Go to the 'Advanced' tab
Scroll down the settings until you reach 'Multimedia'
Untick the 'Show pictures' option
Click 'OK' to close the 'Internet Options' box

Firefox

How to override font and colour settings:
From the main menu, select 'View'.
Select 'Page Style' from the menu.
Here you can turn off the font and colour settings applied to NHS Choices.

How to change the colour of the text and background:
From the main menu, select Tools.
Select Options.
From the list of options, select 'Content'.
In the 'Fonts & Colours' section, click the 'Colours...' button.

Untick 'Use system colours' and  'Allow pages to choose their own colours, instead of my selections above.'

How to change the font style and font size:
From the main menu, select Tools.
Select Options.
From the list of options, select 'Content'.
In the 'Fonts & Colours' section, you can choose a different 'Default font' and choose an alternative 'Size' to suit your needs. 'Go to Advanced and untick 'Allow pages to choose their own fonts instead of my selections above.'

How to stop images downloading:
From the main menu, select Tools.
Select Options.
From the list of options, select 'Content'.
In the list of settings available, untick the 'Load images automatically' check box.

Opera

How to override font and colour settings:
From the main menu, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Preferences'
Select 'Page style'
Under the 'Author mode' option, untick the boxes next to 'Page style sheet' and 'Page fonts and colors'
Click 'OK to close the 'Preferences' box

How to change the colour of the text and background:
From the main menu, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Preferences'
Select 'Fonts and colors'
Highlight the font type you would like to change, e.g. 'Normal' or 'Heading 1'
Click the 'Choose' button to the right.
This will bring up a 'Font' box where you can change the font, font style and font size.
Choose the settings that are suitable for you
Click 'OK' to close the 'Font' box
Back at the 'Fonts and colors' options, click on the box to the right of Background color' and select your preferred colour from the palette that appears

To change colours of visited and not visited links, at 'Link style' click on the 'My link style' box to the right
The 'Links style' box will appear. Click on the colours and select your preferred colour from the palette that appears
Click 'OK' to close the 'Link style' box
Select 'Page style'
Under the 'Author mode' option, untick the boxes next to 'Page style sheet' and 'Page fonts and colors'
Click 'OK' to close the 'Preferences' box

How to change the font style:
From the main menu, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Preferences'
Select 'Fonts and colors'
Highlight the font type you would like to change, e.g. 'Normal' or 'Heading 1'
Click the 'Choose' button to the right. This will bring up a 'Font' box where you can change the font, font style and size of the font. Choose the settings that are suitable for you
Click 'OK' to close the 'Font' box

To use these fonts when you visit all websites in future select 'Page style' (under 'Fonts and colors'
Under the 'Author mode' option, untick the boxes next to 'Page style sheet' and 'Page fonts and colors.' Tick the box next to 'My fonts and colors'
Click 'OK' to close the 'Preferences' box

How to change the font size:
You can choose to Zoom the contents of a page (text and images) from 20% - 1000%
From the main menu, go to 'View' and select 'Zoom'
Select the magnification of the page that is most suitable for you

How to stop images downloading:
This allows you to view only text and the page will load much faster
From the main menu, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Preferences'
Select 'Multimedia'
Next to Images you will see a drop down menu. Click on the arrow to expand the menu and select 'Show no images'
Click 'OK' to close the 'Preferences' box