Accessibility

The department is committed to improving user experience and ensuring our websites are accessible to all users.

This website is currently working on meeting Level AA success criteria of W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. We will be taking a staged approach to ensure accessibility compliance across all our websites.

The department continues to review and improve the accessibility of this website. If you have accessibility issues or feedback, please let us know by completing the website feedback form.

We will attempt to rectify the problem and provide you with the information you required in an alternative format. We are always interested in receiving feedback about your experience in accessing our online services and information.

Responsive design

Our websites are mobile-friendly and built for viewing on multiple platforms including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphone devices.

Accessibility tools

Many tools exist to help people with a disability access the internet. These tools are defined as either 'hardware' or 'software'.

Hardware

Various hardware tools can help people with disabilities to use a computer keyboard or mouse, for example:

Alternative keyboards with limited keys can help people with motor disabilities to use a computer keyboard. These include keyboards manipulated by fingers (External link) and keyboards manipulated using a head-wand (External link)

Software

Software tools can also help users interact with computers in ways that best suit them.

Screen reader programs such as JAWs (External link) and Window-Eyes (External link) can convert a website into a braille display or convert it to audio for people who are blind, visually impaired or have dyslexia.

Screen magnifier programs magnify sections of a computer screen for people with vision impairments. See Windows Screen Magnifier (External link)

Oversized cursor software can help people with vision impairments use a computer cursor. See Biggy (External link) cursors.

On-screen keyboards (External link) combined with switching devices can help people with motor disabilities to use a computer keyboard.

Programs that slow down applications can assist people with motor disabilities. See CPU Killer (External link)

Browsers and operating systems

Your experience of this website may vary according to the capabilities of your browser, operating system or device.

The department actively supports browsers used by more than two per cent of our visitors.

Given the wide range of systems and devices available, we do not actively test with browsers where the usage falls below two per cent of visitors. As a result, your experience of our website may be variable on older browsers.

As a result, your experience of our website may be variable on older browsers. For the best experience make sure you update your browser to the latest version.

Supported browsers

  • Chrome 44 +
  • Firefox 49 +
  • Safari 9 +
  • Internet Explorer 11 +
  • Edge 14+

Supported operating systems

  • Windows 7+
  • iOS 9.3+
  • Android 6+
  • MacOS 10+

Browser shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcut forms are used throughout the lists below: Ctrl=Control; Esc=Escape; Alt=Alternative; Del=Delete; UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT=Arrow keys.

Where available, the key combinations for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems have been provided.

Command Internet Explorer Firefox Opera
Add bookmark Ctrl / Cmd+D Ctrl / Cmd+D Ctrl / Cmd+T
Back Backspace
Alt / Option+<-
Backspace (Win / Linux)
Alt+<- (Win / Linux)
Cmd+<- (Mac)
Backspace
Alt / Option+<-
Ctrl / Cmd+<-
Z
Bookmarks Ctrl / Cmd+I Ctrl / Cmd+B
Ctrl+I (Win)
F4
Ctrl / Cmd+Alt / Option+B
Ctrl / Cmd+1
Caret browsing   F7  
Close tab   Ctrl / Cmd+W
Ctrl / Cmd+F4
Ctrl / Cmd+W
Ctrl / Cmd+F4
Close window Ctrl / Cmd+W
Alt / Option+F4
Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+W
Alt / Option+F4
Ctrl / Cmd+W
Alt / Option+F4
Copy Ctrl / Cmd+C Ctrl / Cmd+C Ctrl / Cmd+C
Cut Ctrl / Cmd+X Ctrl / Cmd+X Ctrl / Cmd+X
Decrease text size   Ctrl / Cmd+- 9
Delete Del Del Del
Delete individual form auto-complete entry Del Shift+Del  
DOM inspector   Ctrl+Shift+I (Win / Linux)  
Downloads   Ctrl+J (Win)
Ctrl+Y (Linux)
Cmd+J (Mac)
Ctrl / Cmd+Alt/Option+T
Ctrl / Cmd+5
Find again   Ctrl / Cmd+G
F3
F3
Find as you type link   ' ,
Shift+/
Find as you type text   / /
.
Find previous   Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+G
Shift+F3
Shift+F3
Find in this page Ctrl / Cmd+F Ctrl / Cmd+F Ctrl / Cmd+F
Forward Shift+Backspace
Alt / Option+->
Shift+Backspace
Alt / Option+-> (Win / Linux)
Cmd+-> (Mac)
Shift+Backspace
Alt / Option+->
Ctrl / Cmd+->
X
Go down one line Down Down Down
Go up one line Up Up Up
Go down one page PageDown PageDown PageDown
Go up one page PageUp PageUp PageUp
Go to bottom of page End End End
Go to top of page Home Home Home
Full screen F11 F11 (Win / Linux) F11
Help F1 F1 (Win / Linux) F1
History Ctrl / Cmd+H Ctrl / Cmd+H Ctrl / Cmd+Alt / Option+H
Ctrl / Cmd+4
Home page Alt / Option+Home Alt / Option+Home Alt / Option+Home
Increase text size   Ctrl / Cmd++ 0
Move to next frame   F6  
More to previous frame   Shift+F6  
New tab Ctrl / Cmd+N Ctrl / Cmd+T Ctrl / Cmd+N
Next tab Ctrl / Cmd+O Ctrl+Tab (Win / Linux)
Cmd+Opt+Tab (Mac)
Ctrl / Cmd+PageDown
Ctrl / Cmd+Tab
Alt / Option+PageDown
Ctrl / Cmd+F6
2
New window Enter / Return Ctrl / Cmd+N Ctrl / Cmd+Alt / Option+N
Open file Shift+Enter / Return Ctrl / Cmd+O Ctrl / Cmd+O
Open link   Enter / Return Enter / Return
Open link in new tab Ctrl / Cmd+F3 Ctrl / Cmd+Enter / Return  
Open link in new window Ctrl / Cmd+V Shift+Enter / Return Shift+Enter / Return
Open address in new tab Ctrl / Cmd+P Alt / Option+Enter / Return Shift+Enter / Return
Page info Ctrl / Cmd+Y Ctrl+I (Linux)
Cmd+I (Mac)
Ctrl / Cmd+8
Page source F5
Ctrl / Cmd+R
Ctrl / Cmd+U Ctrl / Cmd+F3
Paste Ctrl / Cmd+F5 Ctrl / Cmd+V Ctrl / Cmd+V
Previous tab   Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+Tab
Ctrl / Cmd+PageUp
Feature Not Available Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+Tab
Al t/ Option+PageUp
Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+F6
1
Print   Ctrl / Cmd+P Ctrl / Cmd+P
Redo   Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+Z
Ctrl+Y (Win /Linux)
Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+Z
Ctrl+Y
Reload Ctrl / Cmd+A F5
Ctrl / Cmd+R
F5
Ctrl / Cmd+R
Reload (override cache) Alt / Option+D
F4
Ctrl / Cmd+Tab
Ctrl / Cmd+F5
Ctrl / Cmd+Shift+R
 
Restore text size   Ctrl / Cmd+0 6
Save page as   Ctrl / Cmd+S Ctrl / Cmd+S
Save link target as   A t/ Option+Enter / Return  
Select all   Ctrl / Cmd+A Ctrl / Cmd+A
Select location bar Esc Ctrl / Cmd+L
Alt+D (Win / Linux)
F8
Select next auto-complete entry in text field Ctrl / Cmd+Z Down  
Select previous auto-complete entry in text field   Up  
Select next search engine in search bar   Ctrl / Cmd+Down  
Select previous search engine in search bar   Ctrl / Cmd+Up  
Select tab [1 to 9]   Ctrl+[1 to 9] (Win)
Alt+[1 to 9] (Linux)
Cmd+[1 to 9] (Mac)
 
Stop   Esc Esc
Undo   Ctrl / Cmd+Z Ctrl / Cmd+Z
Web search
(Please note: web search moves the cursor to the search bar and only works if the search bar is visible. If the search bar is hidden, this keyboard shortcut has no effect.)
  Ctrl / Cmd+K
Ctrl+J (Linux)
Shift+F8

Acknowledgements

The information above has been sourced from:

  • Multimedia Victoria
  • the websites of the various commercial browsers.