Accessibility
At cahoot, we're committed to making our website accessible and usable for everyone. We've invested in research and consultancy with specialist companies to understand how best to do this.
The resulting changes we've made mean that most users with additional needs should have a much better experience, and we've tested the site with screen readers such as JAWS, Window-Eyes and IBM Home Page Reader. In addition, if you wish, you can now change the size of text using the ‘View’ menu in Internet Explorer for a more comfortable reading experience.
You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to view and print PDF documents that appear on this website. To download this program for free, visit the Adobe website
You'll also find useful tools and resources on the Adobe website if you want to read PDF documents with a screen reader.
If you'd like paperwork in large print, Braille or audio CD please call us on 0330 678 2811 or you can call us on 0800 9 173 489 (freephone). We’re open 8am-6pm Monday-Friday, and 9am-5pm Saturday (if calling from outside the UK please dial +44 1908 937 222).
We offer the text relay service for people who find it hard to talk or difficult to hear our staff using standard phone lines. If you have a text phone you can call us on 18001 0844 9000 900.
Alternatively, if you don't have a text phone you can visit the Next Generation Text website for details on how to use your smartphone, tablet or laptop along with the free Next Generation Text (NGT) app. You don't need a text phone to use this service, which means you can contact us while out and about.
To help us improve our service we may record or monitor phone calls.
As we strive towards making our site simple to use for all, we'd welcome any feedback on further improvements. Please call us on the above number or send us an email from your personal homepage. You may also find it useful to read our hints and tips below to help you get the best out of cahoot.
To make reading on screen more comfortable, you can change the size of the text in your browser. In Internet Explorer, choose View > Text Size and then Larger or Largest to make the text bigger. Choose View > Text Size > Medium to reset it to the default size. Changing this setting may also affect any other web sites that you view.
Our secure banking site uses frames to display a separate navigation menu, and the available space for this is a fixed size. So that the options remain in view and do not overflow the visible space when you make the text size larger, the size of the cahoot navigation menu text will not change when you do this in Internet Explorer.
If you use the ‘Accessibility’ options in Internet Explorer to Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages (Tools > Internet Options > Accessibility), the navigation menu text may overflow the space available when the font size is set larger than default. If you think you may be missing items from the menu and you have used this option, try making the text size smaller using the View menu, or turn off the option.
JavaScripts are small programs built into web pages to add extra features, such as the ability for a web page to open pop up windows or check that you've completed a form completely. Not all browsers support JavaScript, so where we've used these small programs to add features to the site, we've done our best to make sure that the same content and functionality is available to you whether JavaScript is turned on or not.
If your browser doesn't support JavaScript, you should be able to access all areas of the site except for the 'any questions?' feature which we plan to make fully accessible in the future. In some cases you may need to use your browser back button to return to the previous page. Also, you may not be able to use the loans repayment calculators.
Pop up windows are used throughout the site for help windows and for displaying printable versions of certain pages. Even if your browser supports JavaScript, you may have activated a feature which suppresses pop up windows. If you click certain links and nothing seems to happen, it may be that you need to deactivate this functionality. Some browsers such as Opera and Mozilla have built in features to do this, or you may have installed a third party toolbar or other browser component which is preventing the pop up window from opening.
The following information is intended to help users of screen reader software such as JAWS, Window-Eyes, HAL or IBM Home Page Reader to get the most from the site. We've suggested helpful techniques for navigating the site more easily, and provided example shortcut keys for JAWS. Most screen reader applications have similar commands that you can use – check your screen reader documentation to find out the corresponding keyboard shortcuts in your software.
The cahoot secure banking site uses frames, which means that the navigation always stays in view for users with visual browsers. In a screen reader, this means you can skip quickly to the main content within the window or to the main navigation links by using your frame navigation keys. For example, JAWS users can press M or Shift-M to easily move forward and backward through the frames.
All pages use html headings where appropriate, and the main content always starts with a level 1 main heading. This provides a useful way to skip directly to the content in most screen readers by pressing the shortcut key for headings. You may find it useful to go to the top of the page first, to make sure that the next heading read will always be the main heading for the page. For example, JAWS users can press H or Shift+H to move to the next heading, 1 or Shift+1 to move to the next level one heading, and Insert+F6 to display a list of all headings on the page
We use tables for general layout within our web pages, and also for laying out rows and columns of information (data tables). We've done our best to make sure that content will always read in a logical manner, but in some data tables you may find it hard to understand the meaning of each item when the table is read in a linear fashion. If this happens you can use your table navigation keys to have the screen reader announce the relevant headers for each data cell. For example, JAWS users can press Ctrl+Alt+arrow keys to move around the table and read the headers for each cell, or press Ctrl+Alt+NumPad 5 to read the headers for the current cell.
Data tables will always have a summary that you can hear in your screen reader. Data tables are always separate from layout tables, so you can find them easily using your table navigation keys. For example, JAWS users can press T or Shift+T to move to the next table and read its summary.
On certain pages we use an asterisk (*) to indicate further information available at the bottom of the page. These may not be read in the JAWS screen reader unless the option below is set to 'all'.
To read all special characters in JAWS, choose Options > Voices > Global Adjustment and set Punctuation to 'All'.