Accessibility

We’re committed to ensuring everyone using the Business Stream website can access the information on it.

The site is laid out to make finding information easy and intuitive. If you have any problems finding what you require, try using the keyword search located near the top right of every page.

Scaling text

If you have trouble reading the text on the site, you can increase (or decrease) the size using your browser. Here is how you do it in each of the three main browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

  • Hold down the Alt key and press V
  • Then press X
  • Select one of the preset text sizes by using either Up Arrow or Down Arrow key and pressing Return / Enter

Firefox

  • Increase text size - Whilst holding down the Control key, press +
  • Decrease text size - Whilst holding down the Control key, press -

Opera

  • Increase text size - Whilst holding down the Shift key, press +
  • Decrease text size - Whilst holding down the Shift key, press -

Changing colours

Changing the site's background colour can be particularly useful if you rely on magnification technology – as white can produce an uncomfortable glare.

It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site. You can do both by changing preferences in your browser:

In Microsoft Internet Explorer:

  • go to the Tools menu
  • select Internet Options
  • select Accessibility
  • put a tick in the box next to "Ignore colors specified on web pages"
  • select OK
  • select Colors
  • ensure no tick in the box next to &qout;Use windows colors"
  • use Text and Background colour selectors
  • confirm colours OK
  • confirm options OK

In Firefox:

  • go to the Tools menu
  • select Options
  • within options select Content
  • select Colors
  • ensure no tick in the box next to "Allow pages to choose their own colors"
  • ensure no tick in the box next to "Use system colors"
  • use Text and Background colour selectors
  • confirm colours OK
  • confirm options OK
  • Use function key F5 to refresh the screen

In Opera:

  • Tools menu, Preferences and selecting web pages or;
  • View menu, Style and selecting user mode

We recommend that you experiment with the settings to get the effect that makes it easiest for you to read the information.

Opening documents

Most documents on our website are PDFs.

You can download PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don’t already have this, you can download the latest version from the Adobe website.

If you use screen reader software (for example an audio-enabled web browser), and it is not compatible with Adobe Reader, Adobe provide a free online tool to convert the content of PDF files to text – so they can be understood by most screen reader applications. You can also download this from their website.

A small number of documents may not be in PDF format. If you can’t open these (or if there is a problem with any of the PDFs), please just call us on 0845 602 8855 and we will arrange for the information to be sent out to you.

Emailing

If you want to email us, or any of the other organisations mentioned on the site (such as Waterwatch), you can do this by clicking on the relevant email address.

This will automatically open up a new message with the address you need already in place. You will not need to copy and paste the address from the website.

For example, any link that reads email our customer response team will automatically open up a message addressed to them.

Flash content

Some content on our site uses Flash to display information in a more interesting way. It means we can animate graphics and bring them to life, rather than just having them flat on a page.

To enjoy content in this format, you’ll need to have the Flash player on your machine. If you don’t already have this, you can download it from Adobe’s website. It’s free and will only take a few minutes to install.

Get flash player

However, you will always be able to read this content in another format, if you have problems downloading the Flash player or would prefer not to.