Access keys

The access keys (keyboard shortcuts which allow a different form of navigation) are as follows for the essexinfo.net :

Hold down the Alt key, press the appropriate letter/number and hit return.

• Alt 1    Home Page
• Alt  4   Search
• Alt  5   Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Alt  6   Contact Us
• Alt  8   Terms and Conditions
• Alt  9   About Us
• Alt  0   Access Key Details (this page)

And for the subsites ......

• Alt s   Skip navigation
• Alt 1   home
• Alt 4   Search
• Alt 8   Community A-Z

Changing browser text size

If you find the text on our website too large or too small, you can adjust this through your browser. Instructions can be found below to change the text size for the most popular Internet browsers.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to the ‘View' menu at the top of your browser window and select ‘Text Size' from the drop down menu. From here you can choose the most appropriate size for you.

Mozilla Firefox and Netscape

Go to the View menu at the top of your browser window and select Text Size from the drop down menu. From here you can increase or decrase the text size to suit your preference.

Windows keyboard shortcuts:

• Press Ctrl and + to increase the size
• Press Ctrl and - to decrease the size
• Press Ctrl and 0 to go back to the default size

Macintosh keyboard shortcuts:

• Press Cmd and + to increase the size
• Press Cmd and - to decrease the text size
• Press Cmd and 0 to go back to the default size

Safari

Go to the View menu at the top of your browser window and select Make Text Bigger or Make Text Smaller from the drop down menu.

Macintosh keyboard shortcuts:

• Press Cmd and + to increase the size
• Press Cmd and - to decrease the text size
• Press Cmd and 0 to go back to the default size

ReadSpeaker - Listening to text on the page

With ReadSpeaker you can choose different ways of listening to text.

• Mark the text on the screen with the mouse and then click on "text". You will then hear only the text you have marked.
• Click on "text" without marking any text on the screen. You will then hear all the text on the page except the links list.
• Click on "text + links". You will then hear all the text, including the links list and picture descriptions.
• Click on "links". You will then hear a numbered list of all the links on the page.

When you have completed using the ReadSpeaker function, click on Exit to remove the audio toolbar.

Navigation

Click on "Text" and then highlight the area of the screen you want read out. Click "exit" when you want to leave ReadSpeaker. For each icon, there are keyboard shortcuts provided.

Also provided on the ReadSpeaker toolbar is a search engine - in the above example, the word "badminton" has been entered. Click on Go! to retrieve hits. This search engine searches the current page

The speed at which text is read to you can be varied using the Speed button - slow, medium, or fast.

This service offers different ways of moving around the website.

• Select a link by clicking it with your mouse, or move to it using the TAB key.
• Select a link by first listening to the links list and then typing the link's number in the number field (Alt+N) and pressing Enter or "Go!" (Alt+G). When the new page has been loaded you will hear a beep and will be able to make a new selection.
• Select a link by entering a word from the link in the field and pressing Enter or "Go!". When the page has been loaded you will hear a beep and will be able to make a new selection.

The toolbar buttons

The keyboard shortcuts are supported by PCs using Internet Explorer version 5.5 or later.