How to turn on accessibility features in Internet Explorer

Magnify your screen

This feature will increase and decrease the size of text and images on the screen for better visibility.

1. Press and hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard.
2. At the same time as holding the CTRL key:
   • press the + key to increase the size of the text and images or
   • press the ‘-‘ key to decrease the size of the text and images.
3. Keep repeating Step 2 until you reach the desired size.

Choose colours used on web pages

1. Select the Tools menu (Shortcut: Shortcut: ALT + O).
2. Select Internet Options (Shortcut: O).
3. Select the Colors button that is in the bottom left-hand corner (Shortcut: ALT + O).
4. Ensure the Use Windows colors check box is not selected (Shortcut: ALT + W to toggle on/off).
5. Choose your desired colours by selecting the colour box and then choosing from the available colours. You can change the colours for text, background, visited and unvisited hyperlinks and hover.
6. Select OK on the Colors screen.
7. Select OK on the Internet Options screen.

Choose the font style and size used on web pages

1. Select the Tools menu (Shortcut: ALT + O).
2. Select Internet Options (Shortcut: O).
3. Select the Fonts button from the bottom of the Internet Options screen (Shortcut: ALT + N).
4. Select the web page font and/or plain text font you want to use from the drop-down list.
5. Select OK on the Fonts screen.
6. Select OK on the Internet Options screen.

Additional accessibility features

1. Select the Tools menu (Shortcut: ALT + O).
2. Select Internet Options (Shortcut: O).
3. Select the Accessibility button (Shortcut: ALT + E).
4. Choose your desired options from:
   • Ignore colours specified on webpages if you want your browser to ignore colours specified on web pages (Shortcut: ALT + C to toggle on/off).
   • Ignore font styles specified on webpages if you want your browser to ignore font styles specified on web pages (Shortcut: ALT + S to toggle on/off).
   • Ignore font sizes specified on webpages if you want to ignore font sizes specified on web pages (Shortcut: ALT + Z to toggle on/off).
   • Format documents using my style sheet and then type the name of your style sheet, or navigate to it by selecting the Browse button (Shortcut: ALT + D to toggle on/off).
5. Select OK on the Accessibility screen.
6. Select OK on the Internet Options screen.

Keyboard shortcut

Microsoft has an up-to-date list of shortcuts for Internet Explorer 8.

Further information

• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Accessibility Tutorials.
• Microsoft’s Accessibility Tutorials for Microsoft Products, including Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8.
• BBC’s My web, My Way provides tools and information to assist people with a disability to get the most out of the Internet. Includes practical how-to articles for Windows, Mac and Linux.