Help using our site
Finding what you need
There are several ways to find information:
- Our Services menu is on every page and gives quick access to our main services and news.
- The site search is on every page, and provides suggestions for what you’re looking for. The results include both webpages and documents.
- The home page displays latest news and promotions, as well as quick access to the most popular information on the website.
- Links to 'Apply', 'Book', 'Pay' and 'Report' are on every page for quick access to our online transactions.
- Any alerts for important and urgent information will display at the top of each page.
- You can sign up for regular email updates about our services by submitting your email address in the footer of the page.
- Links to our social media channels allow you to keep up to date with the latest news and events.
Document downloads
Most of our downloads are in PDF, Microsoft Word or Excel format. We always try to keep the download size under 5MB, but some may be larger.
We aim to make all downloads accessible. For more information, please read our Accessibility page.
Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are a useful and quick way of navigating through a site or page.
For most browsers, use your ‘Tab’ key to navigate forward through links (use Shift + Tab to go backwards), and ‘Enter’ to activate the link.
Many other keys can be used, and will vary depending on the browser and operating system you are using.
Text sizing
Most browsers will allow you to zoom in and out of the page. The most common way to do this is by using:
- 'CTRL +' to increase the size
- 'CTRL –' to decrease the size
Assistive technology
You can download software onto your device, which will allow you to hear the text on our site being spoken.
If you do not have any software, the ReachDeck toolbar is enabled on our site and can be accessed from any page.
The key features of the ReachDeck toolbar include:
- text to speech
- high contrast page view
- simplified page view
- language translations.
ReachDeck - listen to our website
ReachDeck is a web accessibility toolbar available throughout our website to help make it easier to use for everyone. It is especially useful for people:
- with a vision impairment
- who have difficulty reading
- who prefer to read the site in another language.
Opening ReachDeck
Press the orange ReachDeck button at the bottom right of any page to open the ReachDeck toolbar, which will display at the top of your screen.
ReachDeck tools
- Hover to speak - This reads out loud any text you click or hover over. It will then continue reading the rest of the page until it reaches the end, or you press the stop button.
- Speak the current selection - This is similar to the hover to speak tool, although instead will read the text you have highlighted. If you don't select text, it will read out the entire page.
- Translate page - This translates the text on the page to a different language. When selecting this tool you will be presented a list of languages to choose from, and selecting your desired language will instantly translate the page.
- Picture dictionary - Selecting a word on the page, followed by this tool, will display the meaning of the word through illustration.
- MP3 maker - Selecting a section of text on the page, followed by this tool, will create an MP3 sound file of your selection which you can download and play on your device.
- Screen mask - This dims the screen and highlights a rectangular section of the screen, which is especially useful to users with some forms of dyslexia and learning difficulties. Preferences for the colour, opacity and height can be found in the settings menu.
- Text magnifier - This shown at the top of the page once you have clicked any text. The text will also be read aloud. You can change the size of the magnified text in the settings menu.
- Simplify - This reduces a page to just the text content, removing distracting menus and graphics. Further options for this tool are shown at the top of the screen where you can change fonts and colour styles for easier reading.
- Help - Shows a simple help page with a short description for each feature described on this page.
- Settings - Allows you to adjust settings for the tools, such as speaking rate and magnification size.
Website options
Some accessibility options of this website can be turned off if you do not want to use them.
Website feedback
It is important that we know how useful you think our website is. If you think things could be improved, or have had any issues, please let us know by emailing DSAB@derby.gov.uk.