Web access for all users

This website is created and maintained by Historic Scotland. Historic Scotland aims to make the website accessible to all users and therefore follows certain standards and government guidelines to ensure that the website can be used as effectively and easily as possible by everyone.

Website and government standard compliance

This website has been built to comply with all of the Priority 2 (Double A) accessibility checkpoints, as established in the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative. The initiative promotes usability and accessibility for people with disabilities. Details on the World Wide Web Consortium’s web accessibility initiative are available at www.w3.org/WAI.

The majority of the website's pages conform to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's 'AA' standard.

This website also conforms to the UK government guidelines for websites.

XHTML-transitional, CSS 1.0, WAI WCAG Level 2 have been set as technical standards. Flash 7 and PDF content are also available with XHTML and graphic alternatives.

Accessibility browser options

For Microsoft Internet Options:
Go to Tools, select Accessibility and you can make changes to formatting and style sheets.

For Mozilla Firefox:
Go to Tools, select Options, then Advanced and you can make changes to various Accessibility options.

Difficulty using a mouse

Most websites can be used without a traditional mouse. Links can be selected and clicked using the keyboard. If you find it difficult to use a mouse to navigate around a webpage, you can follow these steps as a substitute to using your mouse:

The Tab Key
Click on the TAB key on your keyboard.
This will move your cursor to each of the navigation links or options on the screen. When you have found the link you want, press ENTER on your keyboard.

Page up/down keys
You can also use the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys on your keyboard to move the page to the area you want to read.

Changing text size

If you find the text on this website is too small or too large, you can change it easily by clicking the PLUS or MINUS buttons on the top right of each webpage. Alternatively, you should simply adjust your browser's settings: If you use

Microsoft Internet Explorer:
Go to the View menu, select Text Size and then Larger/Largest or Smaller/Smallest.

Mozilla Firefox:
Go to the View menu, select Text Size and choose Increase or Decrease.

Netscape Navigator:
Go to the View menu and choose Increase or Decrease Font until the text is the size you require.

Changing colours

Changing the website's background colour can be particularly useful for users who rely on magnification technology as white can produce an uncomfortable glare. It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site.

Both can be achieved by changing preferences in your browser: If you use

Microsoft Internet Explorer:
Go to the Tools menu, select Internet Options, select Colours and make changes to text and background colours in the Colours panel.

Mozilla Firefox:
Go to the Tools menu, select Options, open Fonts and Colours. You can make changes to Fonts and background colours and link colours.

Netscape Navigator:
Go to the Edit menu, select Preferences, open the Appearance menu and select Colours. You can set the colour of text and background from here.

Setting the screen resolution

Screen resolution, measured in pixels, refers to the resolution of the computer monitor. The screen area setting is an important factor in how much information your monitor can display.

This web site is designed for a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768. If your current setting is lower than 1024 x 768, the pages will not fit into your browser window without the need to use the scrollbars. If you would like to change your settings to the recommended resolution for optimum viewing of this website, follow the steps outlined below:

For Windows
Right-click your desktop. Choose 'Properties' (should be the last choice on the pop-up menu). Click the 'Settings' tab. Change the number on the slider bar (bottom left) from the current resolution to 1024 x 768. Select 'OK'.

For Macintosh OSX
Click the 'Apple' symbol in the top-left-hand menu on your desktop. Click 'System Preferences'. Click 'Displays'. In the pop-up window click 1024 x 768in the 'Resolutions' window. Your monitor will resize automatically

For Macintosh OS9
Click the 'Apple' symbol in the top-left-hand menu on your desktop. In the drop-down menu, go to 'Control panels' and click 'Monitors'. In the pop-up window select screen size 1024 x 768. Your monitor will resize automatically.

Screen readers

The webpages on this website are designed to be used with screenreaders, so that visually impaired users can easily access the content and navigate the site.

Some of our publications such forms, leaflets are available to download in Portable Document Format (PDF).

To view PDF files, you can install a PDF document viewer. There are various types available, of which Acrobat is a well-known type. Adobe Acrobat Reader software is available to download and install on your computer free of charge from the Adobe website www.adobe.co.uk.

PDF documents may not be readily accessible to screen readers and may not be formatted for visually impaired users. To convert PDF documents into plain text or plain HTML documents, you can use Adobe’s online conversion tool available at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html.

The access.adobe.com website provides tools and information to help make Adobe PDF files accessible to users with visual disabilities.


Where audio files such as MP3 and WAV are provided on our website, textual transcripts are also provided as alternatives. There are many different programs available to play audio clips. Some examples include:

Microsoft Media Player
www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx

Apple Quicktime
www.apple.com/quicktime

Real Player
http://uk.real.com/player/