The Scottish Parliament is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We hope you find it meets your needs and that you can find the information you are looking for. If anything gives you problems on this site please let us know.

Help with seeing, reading, and hearing our website

Information on the BBC website My Web, My Way provides advice on how you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible for you. It provides advice on how to see, hear and read websites more clearly by:

• making the text larger
• magnifying the screen
• making the mouse pointer easier to see
• changing the colours
• changing the font
• using your own style sheets
• making your computer talk

How to view and download the types of files found on the Scottish Parliament website

Developments to this website have been tested for optimal performance in Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Other browsers may not display pages as expected.

Help with navigating our website

• access keys – how to access information on our website using the key board
• search – how the search tool works
• sitemap – an index of pages within the Scottish Parliament site

Help with Different Languages & Formats

The Scottish Parliament website contains information in a range of languages other than English

Many Scottish Parliament publications are available in a variety of formats, including Braille, Audio Tape, Audio CD, and British Sign Language DVD. For further information see the Scottish Parliament Publications webpage.

Types of Documents and Files on our Website

ADOBE DOCUMENTS

Viewing and downloading PDF files

The Adobe Reader that you need for viewing and printing portable document format (PDF) files can be downloaded free-of-charge from the Adobe website

Use the Adobe Reader to:

• view a document by clicking on the link text. The document will load into the reader
• save a document for later viewing by right-clicking your mouse on the link text and selecting Save Target As and saving the file in your preferred location.
  
  

If you have a Macintosh with a single button mouse

• save a document for later viewing by holding down the control key while you click your mouse on the link text. Select Save Link As or Download Link to Disk and save the file in your preferred location.

To convert PDFs to HTML or text formats use the Adobe PDF files online conversion tools

OFFICE FILES

Viewing, saving and printing Microsoft Office files

To view, save and print Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files you will need either Microsoft Office, or the free Microsoft Office Online viewers, installed on your computer. You can download the free Microsoft Office Online converters and viewers from the Microsoft website.

To view Word, Excel or PowerPoint files

View a document by clicking on the link text. The document will load into the reader.

To save Word, Excel or PowerPoint files

Save a document for later viewing by right-clicking your mouse on the link text and selecting Save Target As and saving the file in your preferred location.

If you have a Macintosh with a single button mouse:

Save a document for later viewing by holding down the control key while you click your mouse on the link text. Selecting Save Link As or Download Link to Disk and save the file in your preferred location.

VIDEO/AUDIO FILES

These files require installation and use of Windows Media Player which is available to download free of charge from Microsoft. This file format allows us to "stream" audio and video files to users, which means that you begin hearing and seeing the files without having to wait for the entire file to download.To hear audio on your computer, your system must also have a sound card and speakers or earphones.