Accessibility

You can adapt this website to meet your needs. The settings you create on this page will be saved for future visits. If you wish to return to the standard settings, click the "Reset settings" button.

We are fully committed to ensuring this website meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (opens in a new window) (WCAG 2.1) to AA standard to ensure people with disabilities are not excluded from accessing information and services.

Based on the Accessibility Evaluation carried out by Idox on 10/09/2020, the website is close to meeting WCAG 2.1, Conformance Level AA. Websites often contain content (widgets or functionality) from third parties like Google translate, or Browse Aloud. Although every effort is made to accommodate such code, it is not possible to change it, and therefore a user of Assistive Technology (such as a blind user using a screen reader) may not benefit from the richest user experience for these sections of a page.

Our website is for everyone and we strive to make it easy to:

  • Find with a search engine
  • Find your way around
  • Read and understand (see Change Font Size and Change Site Appearance for further information)

We try to:

  • Use friendly language
  • Make it easy to contact the correct person directly if you need to
  • Use links with meaning i.e. 'supported living services' rather than 'click here'
  • Tell you when we are going to make a link open a new browser window
  • Let you know when we are linking to a PDF (see PDF Documents for further information)

We try to avoid using:

  • Jargon
  • Complicated wordy sentences and paragraphs
  • Images that make pages load slowly

The design of our website includes a number of accessibility features including:

  • Change font size
  • Change site appearance
  • Translate the page using Google Translator
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Images and alt tags
  • PDF Documents
  • Report an accessibility problem

We are working on making sure all the above features are compliant with the regulations and accessible.  Please let us know by emailing dos@reading.gov.uk if you encounter an issue.

Change font size

To increase the size of the text, hold down the ctrl key on the bottom left hand row of the key board whilst using the scroll wheel on the mouse to increase (or decrease) the size of the text. Alternatively you can use the + (plus) and - (minus) keys whilst holding down the ctrl key.

Change site appearance

If you have any difficulty in reading the content of the site in its default design you may want to switch to using the text only version of the page.

  1. Click on the Text Only link at the top of the page which will take you to a text only version of the page. 
  2. Use the links at the top of the page to switch between Light Theme (black text on white background) and Dark Theme (white text on dark background)

Whichever theme you choose it will be maintained as you navigate through the site.

To return back to the default design version of the site click on the Graphical Version link at any time.

Translate the page using Google Translator

Google Translator provides an easy way to translate web pages into a variety of languages. Simply select the language required from the drop down list.

Compatible Assistive Technologies

The Reading Services Guide is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies:

Google Chrome (latest version) – Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android

Apple Safari (latest version) – Mac OS X, iOS

Microsoft Internet Explorer 11+ – Windows

Microsoft Edge (latest version) – Windows

Mozilla Firefox (latest version) – Windows

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts control various browser functions and are often a useful and quick way of navigating through a site. For the vast majority of browsers, use your Tab key to navigate forward through links (use Shift + Tab to go backwards), and Enter to activate the link.

Many other keys can be used, and will vary depending on the browser and operating system you are using. To find the shortcuts for your browser, please visit this link to find some useful information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_key 

You can also follow these steps if your computer is running Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator on Windows:

  1. Internet Explorer - Press your F1 key to open the online help and in the index, type "keyboard shortcuts", select the required option and click "display".
  2. Netscape Navigator - Press your F1 key to open the online help and in the index, type "keyboard".
  3. Firefox-Mozilla - Press your F1 key to open the online help and in the index, select "keyboard Shortcuts".
  4. Google Chrome – Press your F1 key to open the chrome help page and in the search field type “keyboard shortcuts”.

The Reading Services Guide has got the following active access keys:

0 - Text only mode
6 - Help Page
1 - Home Page

For Chrome users, please hold the Alt key while pressing the access key for it to work.

For Internet Explorer users, hold the Alt Key while pressing the access key, release both keys then press 'Enter'.

Images and alt tags

We have avoided using excessive graphics within the website where possible to ensure quick download times and access to information which cannot be read if in image format. Where images have been used we have added 'Alt' tags - text alternatives so that you will still know what the image is meant to convey even if it does not load or if you've have chosen to browse with the images switched off or you are using an assistive technology like a screen reader to browse the webpage rather than view.

PDF Documents

This site uses PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file format for the publication of large and complex documents. Please note that Adobe Acrobat documents can be converted back to plain text using Adobe's Web-based conversion service.

Report an accessibility problem

We are constantly working to improve the accessibility features of the site and really would welcome your suggestions and comments. We will be undertaking a further review of this site to introduce more measures and features to improve its accessibility standards.

If you encounter an accessibility or technical problem with any page on this site, please visit the Contact us page to let us know.

 

Contact the Team

Family Information Service

fis@reading.gov.uk 0118 937 3777 OPTION 2 0118 937 3777 OPTION 2

SEND Local Offer

localoffer@reading.gov.uk 0118 937 3777 OPTION 2 0118 937 3777 OPTION 2

Adult & Carers Support

CSAAdvice.Signposting@reading.gov.uk 0118 937 3747 0118 937 3747
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