Accessibility

At the Newcastle, we recognise the diverse requirements of all of our customers - aiming always to understand and meet their needs and provide guidance when it is required. We want to provide all our customers with the same high level of service, so please let us know if you have any particular requirements and we'll do our best to help you.

This website has been developed with accessibility features to make the information contained in this website available to everyone. This page will detail the various accessibility features that have been built into this site along with any further accessibility information.

Guideline Conformance:

This website conforms to the W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 explains how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Conformance to these Guidelines will help make the Web more accessible to users with disabilities and will benefit all users.

In addition to conforming with the W3C guidelines, this site also conforms to the guidelines of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act which requires agencies and organisations to make information available to people with disabilities.

The conformance level of this website has been validated from five sources:

• The A-Prompt validation program.
• The Bobby online validator.
• The Cynthia automated validator.
• The WebXACT validator.
• Human validation by a number of web developers.

Validation:

The code used to create this website is valid and correctly used to aid in the site's accessibility.

Browser Compatibility:

This site has been tested with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Netscape and Safari and is compatible with each of the browsers.

Text Sizing:

This site has a text sizing function built into your browser. If you are having difficulty reading the text on this page and would like to increase its size simply do the following:

Internet Explorer:

• Click the "View" menu at the top of the browser window.
• Select "Text Size" from the menu.
• In the sub-menu that appears select which text size you want to use, Smallest, Smaller, Medium, Larger, or Largest (Medium is the default).

Alternatively hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and use the mouse wheel to increase / decrease the text size of this site.

Firefox:

• Click the "View" menu at the top of the browser window.
• Select "Text Size" from the menu.
• Select "Increase" or "Decrease" to alter the size of the text.

Alternatively hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and use the mouse wheel to increase / decrease the text size of this site.

Opera:

• Click the "View" menu at the top of the browser window.
• Select text size you want to use (as a percentage of the original).

Alternatively hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and use the mouse wheel to increase / decrease the text size of this site.

Netscape Navigator / Communicator:

• Click the "View" menu at the top of the browser window.
• Select "Increase Font" from the menu.

Netscape 6:

• Click the "View" menu at the top of the browser window.
• Select text size.

Netscape 7:

• Click the "View" menu at the top of the browser window.
• Select "Text Zoom" from the menu.
• In the sub-menu that appears select which text size you want to use.
• Alternatively select "Other" and manually enter the text size (as a percentage of the original) that you want to use.

Access Keys:

Some users may not be able to use pointing devices such as the mouse, therefore in order to assist user's access particular sections of the website, Access Keys have been built into the site. The way in which the Access Keys are used depends on the browser you are using to view this site.

For windows systems if you're using Netscape 6+, Mozilla or Internet Explorer 4 then press Alt and the desired Access Key at the same time. If however you're using Internet Explorer 5 or 6, then press Alt and the desired Access Key followed by pressing Enter. For Macintosh based systems press the CTRL key and then the desired Access Key.

The following is a list of the Access Keys available:

• Skip Navigation: S
• Home: 1
• Press Office: 2
• Site Map: 3
• Help: 6
• Complaints: 7
• Terms and Conditions: 8
• Contact us: 9
• Accessibility: 0

Skip Navigation:

Screen readers often have difficulty when reading websites that contain a lot of navigation links, therefore a Skip Navigation link has been built in. The Skip Navigation link will quite literally allow users of screen readers to jump over all the navigation links so they don't have to listen to a long list of links before getting to the information held on the page.

Disabled Functions:

This site runs using XHTML and CSS. XHTML is the base code supported by all browsers, however some browsers don't support CSS, in addition some users may choose to have CSS disabled. Although the site runs using CSS, it will work correctly if CSS is disabled.

Tabular Information:

Tables can cause problems for screen readers as they can't view tabular information presented in columns, and are instead read in rows. Therefore in order to get around the problems for screen readers, the tables have been coded so that they "transform gracefully" whereby the column headers are coded so they correctly relate to each individual cell, rather than just being visually presented that way.

Acronyms & Abbreviations:

As part of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, all acronyms and abbreviations must have their full meanings specified. Therefore, each abbreviation and acronym on this site will appear in underlined blue text. When the mouse hovers over it, the cursor will change to include a question mark, and a tool tip will appear stating the complete meaning of the abbreviation or acronym.

Printer Friendly:

This site has been built to be 100% printer friendly. You will most likely have encountered situations where you have printed off a page from a website and had all the images and layout of the site printed onto the page as well making the page look very cluttered. When you print a page of this website all the layout and graphics are removed off the page and only the information is printed in a clear font.

Mobility Difficulties

We already have over 30 branches with level access and regularly review the design and layout of our branches so that access is made as easy as possible.

Deaf and hearing impaired

All our offices have the Hearing loop facility installed and some offer a portable mini loop system which can be used in interview areas for extra privacy.

Blind / Visually Impaired Members

All our literature is available in large print or audio cassette on request. If you would prefer to receive regular communications, for example mortgage or investment interest statements in large print or audio cassette please contact us on 08457 344 345 for further information.