As a charity, we believe in free and open access to family history records and that providing this is the best way to preserve these rich sources of information for future generations. Therefore, it is crucial to Free UK Genealogy’s mission that everyone has the means to access all of our websites. People may struggle to access our services due to advancing age, long-term health issues, and/or disability, which can often make access difficult or impossible.

Find the right assistive technology to customise our websites to your needs

We want everyone to be able to use this site ‘as is’, but you may find it more accessible if you customise your computer to match your individual needs.  For example, you may want to change the font size, colours, or have the computer read the text to you. If the text is too small for you to read comfortably, then you can use Ctrl together with + to enlarge the page (Cmd with + on a Mac). See your browser’s View menu for other commands for changing the text or page size. You may be able to adjust the brightness and contrast settings for your screen or monitor. We suggest you visit https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk where there is much more information on customisations.

Working with the Shaw Trust

To make our websites accessible without customisations, we are currently working with The Shaw Trust to make FreeREG easily accessible to all, and more compatible with assistive technology. It is being evaluated against and brought in line with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. In the next few months, the site should be usable by recent versions of assistive technologies including JAWS (Job Access With Speech), NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access), ZoomText, and Dragon Naturally Speaking. It should also be usable by screen magnifiers and speech recognition software found on your operating system.

FreeREG is the first of our websites to be reviewed and made more accessible in this way. All our websites will have their own accessibility statements with information on how to improve your access, and what we are planning for that website. As we improve and update our services, we will continue to work towards full accessibility of all Free UK Genealogy websites and digital communications.