The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website has been designed to be accessible to all users, irrespective of their browser type, speed of connection or physical ability. It has been constructed in keeping with the Guidelines for UK Government Websites , and abides by the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative recommendations. The RNIB have also been consulted on ways in which we can improve the accessibility of the site for visually impaired users.
The following accessibility features have been incorporated on our website:
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A full text-only version
'Alt-text' on images
'Access keys' for those who have difficulty using a mouse
Text transcripts of all video material
W3C-validated HTML
Access Keys
Access keys operate on all pages of the site and act as an alternative to the standard navigation buttons. The keys are assigned as follows:
Press the 'alt' key together with the relevant number, then enter.| 0 | Access Key Details |
| 1 | Homepage |
| 2 | What's new |
| 3 | Sitemap |
| 4 | Search |
| 5 | FAQs |
| 7 | Complaints |
| 8 | Terms and conditions |
| 9 | Feedback |
| S | Skip constant navigation |
Plug-ins
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website uses a number of different file formats to present information. We have taken care not to present any information in any format that is not standard across the web.
The following is a list of the non-HTML formats used on the website together with links to websites where you can download the free plug-ins necessary to access them:
| Icon | Plug-in | ||
|
Portable Document Format (PDF) - download the latest free Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website . Viewers with visual difficulites may find it useful to investigate services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents - Access Adobe website . | ||
|
Audio and video presented in Windows Media format. Download the latest free Windows Media Player from the Microsoft website . | ||
|
WinZip - download the latest evaluation version of the WinZip decompression program from WinZip website . | ||
| N/A | Flash - download the latest version of the free Flash player from the Macromedia website . |
If you have a problem accessing any of the information on the FCO website, please contact us via the feedback form and include details of the page in question, the nature of the problem and which browser / operating system you are using.














