Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Tips

This website is designed to high standards of accessibility so that all site visitors can easily access its content and use its features. We will continue to work toward improving accessibility.

Portable document format (PDF)

There are some PDFs on this website. PDF is a universal file format by Adobe. It retains all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image. The PDF can be viewed, navigated, forwarded to others, or printed exactly as it appears on screen, using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

• Get Adobe PDF Reader (external site).

Opening a PDF

If you are experiencing problems opening a download file (such as a PDF or Word file), try saving it to your computer before opening:

• right-click on the link to display the shortcut menu (or Control+Click on a Mac)
• select ‘Save Target As’ from menu (or 'Download link to disk' on a Mac)
• browse to the directory where you want to save the file
• select ‘Save’
• navigate to where you have saved the file and double-click to open.

Listening to information in PDFs

Some PDFs on this website can be automatically read out loud. First, you need sound on your computer and a recent version of Adobe Reader; it’s free. Then:

• open the PDF document
• save it to your computer
• on the top toolbar find the ‘view’ menu - open it
• select ‘activate read out loud’.

Converting a PDF to text

A conversion service offered by Adobe that will convert to text Adobe PDF files that are in English and most West European languages.

• Visit: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html (external site).

Other file types

Information throughout the Department of Human Services (DHS) website is mainly in HTML. In some cases, other software formats are provided. To open these different formats, you may need to download and install one or more of the following on your computer:

Microsoft Word

Document links indicated by .doc will open using the word processing package you have on your computer.

If you don't have Word, you can open and view Word documents within your browser using the free Microsoft Word Viewer.

• Get Microsoft Word Viewer (external site).

Microsoft Excel

Document links indicated by .xls will open only if you have Excel installed. With the free Excel Viewer you can open, view, and print Excel based information, even if you don't have Excel installed. You can also copy data from the Excel Viewer to another program.

• Get Microsoft Excel Viewer (external site).

Microsoft PowerPoint

Presentation links indicated by .ppt will open as a slideshow only if you have PowerPoint installed.

If you don't have Microsoft PowerPoint you can use a free PowerPoint Viewer.

• Get Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer (external site).

ZIP files

ZIP files are used for large files and can contain one or more files on the same topic. They are usually compressed to save space. ZIP files make it easy to group files and make transporting and copying these files faster.

Document links indicated by .zip will launch an expansion utility if you have one installed.

You can download the expansion utility appropriate to your operating system (PC or Mac):

• Get WinZip for Windows (external site)
• Get StuffIt for Macintosh (external site)

Images

There are a few images on this website or within documents. The content of images is described using alt tags (alternative text).

Accessibility features

Audio or translation services

Parks Victoria occasionally publishes guidance in video or audio format on this website. This requires a Media Player (for viewing interactive content). You may need to download and install one of the following:

• Flash
• Quicktime
• Windows Media Player.

Contact us to enquire about guidance in alternative formats.

Services are also available for the hearing-impaired.

• National Relay Service

The Australian Government offers the National Relay Service (NRS). It can help people with hearing or speech impairments experience better telephone conversations with reduced misunderstanding and repetition.  NRS subscribers can use the service to make appointments and business calls, and keep in touch with family and friends.

• Auslan Video Relay Interpreting Service

The Video Relay Interpreting (VRI) service make it possible for deaf people to communicate in Auslan with hearing people in the same room in various situations such as a health professional, legal service or job interview via a remote Auslan interpreter.

Links to other websites and documents

All links to external websites should open in a new browser window. Links to documents should open up a landing page in the same browser window which contains the file size and format of the document. Links to documents from these landing pages should then open the document in a new browser window.

Changing text appearance

Parks Victoria website accessibility shortcuts - Icons and descriptions

The following shortcuts appear on all Parks Victoria pages so that text appearance can be changed quickly and easily.

Text size

Set the font size on your pages by selecting the big A or little A at the top-right of the screen.

Alternatively, you can change the text size settings in your Web browser. Just follow the instructions below based on the browser you are using (or see your browser's ‘help’ for details).

Internet Explorer on a PC:

• Select 'View' in the menu bar
• Select the preferred text size option.

Mozilla Firefox:

• Select 'View' in the menu bar
• Select 'Text Size'
• Select 'Increase'
• To increase the text size further, continue selecting 'Increase'.

Opera:

• Select 'View' in the menu bar
• Select 'Zoom'
• From the menu, select the size with which you would like to view the website.
• To increase the text size further, increase the percentage.

Netscape:

• Select 'View' in the menu bar
• Select 'Text Size'
• From the menu, select the size with which you would like to view the website.

Document text size:

Use the Zoom feature in the toolbar to change the text size of Microsoft Word, Excel and Adobe PDF documents.

Changing colour and fonts

PC users can override website colour and font page styles by modifying browser settings:

• With Internet Explorer, from the Tools menu, select 'Internet Options'. Within Internet Options, select the 'General' tab and click 'Accessibility'. This gives a page of menu options from which you can tick a box to ignore the predefined page style.
• Return to the Internet Options menu, and select your own colours and fonts.

Mac users can override website colour and font page styles by modifying browser setting.

• With Internet Explorer, from the top menu bar, select 'Preferences'. Within the Web Browser section, select 'Web content' and uncheck the 'Show style sheets' tick box.
• Select 'Language/fonts' and choose the preferred text size from the font options.

Keyboard navigation

Keyboard navigation is an alternative to the mouse for browsing websites. This increases accessibility for visitors who have difficulty using a mouse or pointer tool.

Use the arrow keys to scroll up or down pages. Use the tab key to move between links (‘skip links’), and press return or enter to select one. Use the backspace key to go back to the previous page.

The method for using access keys depends on the type of computer you have and the web browser software you use. In general, the following combination of keys is used:

• On a PC using internet explorer - 'Alt' + <access key>, then 'Enter'.
• On a PC using mozilla firefox/netscape - 'Alt' + <access key>
• On an Mac computer - 'Control' + <access key>