Disability Discrimination Act

Services for our customers with disabilities

We are committed to providing services that are easy to use and available to disabled people.

• Our literature, annual mortgage statements and customer communications are available in modified large print, Braille and on audio tape or CD upon request.
• The accessibility of this website is currently being reviewed. We believe our website meets the majority of Priority 1 W3C requirements, and work is continuing. However if you do come across any accessibility difficulties with regard to this website, please let us know.

Please contact us for more information about these services.

Access to the Bank of Ireland Mortgages Website

Advice on the accessibility of our online services.

• Our Website
• How to get the most out of the Bank of Ireland Mortgages Website
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Netscape Navigator 4.x

Our Website

As much as possible, we have tried to follow the guidelines of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These include:

• Using meaningful ALT text for images and providing descriptive text of significant images
• Providing text descriptions of multimedia content on our site
• Using descriptive link titles

How to get the most out of the Bank of Ireland Mortgages Website

You can change some of the options in your Internet browser (at the top of this window), and using the latest version of Netscape or Internet Explorer you should be able to:

• alter the size and colour of most text (but not images)
• alter the background colour (black text on a yellow background gives the most contrast)
• alter the line length, by changing the size and shape of your browser window

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Changing the font

Using a sans serif font (such as Arial), rather than a serif font (such as Times New Roman) can make text easier to read. Our website uses Arial as a default font type but should you wish to change this, just follow these steps:

1. On the 'Tools' menu, select 'Internet Options'
2. On the 'General' tab, select 'Fonts'
3. In the 'Web Page Font' list, select the font you would like to use
4. Select the 'Accessibility' section and check the 'ignore font styles specified on web pages' option.

Displaying text larger or smaller

1. On the 'Tools' menu select 'Internet Options'
2. Select the 'General' tab and then 'Accessibility'
3. Select the option 'ignore font size specified on web pages' (this will increase the standard font size used slightly)

or:

1. On the 'View' menu, select 'Text Size'
2. Select an option ranging from 'smallest' to 'largest'
3. Changing text and background colour

Website authors and designers often specify particular fonts, typefaces and background colours for their pages, and the combinations can sometimes make the text difficult to read. We have used black text on a white background throughout our website, however, you can override these settings by choosing your own colour scheme - black text on a yellow background gives the most contrast:

1. On the 'Tools' menu, select 'Internet Options'
2. On the 'General' tab, select 'Colors'
3. Uncheck the option 'Use Windows Colors'
4. Select 'Text' and choose the colour you want - Click 'OK'
5. Select 'Background' and choose the colour you want - Click 'OK'
6. Close the 'Colors' window by clicking on 'OK'
7. In the 'Accessibility' section select the option 'ignore colours specified on web pages'

To close images on web pages

1. On the 'Tools' menu, select 'Internet Options'
2. Select the 'Advanced' tab and scroll down to 'Multimedia'
3. Uncheck the option 'Show pictures'
4. Click on 'Apply' and then click 'OK'
5. You may need to refresh, empty your cache or restart your browser for these changes to take effect

To change the size of the window

1. Click 'Full Screen' either via your toolbar or the 'View' menu

There are more options to make websites easier to read, such as removing animation and expanding text. To look at the other options:

1. On the 'Tools' menu, select 'Internet Options'
2. Select the 'Advanced' tab and choose the options you would like

Netscape Navigator 4.x

To change the settings on your browser go to the Edit menu, and click on Preferences. From here you can make the following changes:

Changing the font

1. Select 'Appearance' and then 'Font'
2. Change the Variable Width Font and the Fixed Width Font to the type you prefer
3. Change the Font size
4. Select the option 'use my default fonts, overriding document specified fonts'
5. You may need to reload, empty your cache or restart your browser for these changes to take effect

Changing the colour of the background

1. Select 'Appearance' and then 'Colours'
2. Uncheck option 'use windows colours'
3. Select 'Background' and choose a colour
4. Select option 'always use my colours, overriding document'
5. Click 'OK' to close Preferences

NB there is also an option to change the text colour, however, through Netscape browsers our text will remain black, with the exception of alternative text shown when images are not displayed.

To close images on web pages

1. Select 'Edit' and then 'Preferences'
2. Select 'Advanced' and uncheck option 'Automatically load images'
3. You may need to reload, empty your cache or restart your browser for these changes to take effect

If you have any problems changing these settings, please click the Help menu on the browser toolbar. Also, if your browser has different options to the above, look at the Help menu for specific instructions.