Nottinghamshire Healthcare, the county’s mental health and learning disability service provider, has speech-enabled its website to improve access to local health service information.
This means that people visiting the Trust’s website can now listen to the site being read aloud to them, using a piece of software called Browsealoud.
The service is designed to improve access to the website for people with mild visual impairments, dyslexia or low literacy levels, and people who do not speak English as their first language.
The software can be downloaded for free from this website. Once installed, users can hear selected sections of text or the entire page depending on where the cursor is pointed; patient information leaflets or Board papers can also be read aloud or saved as MP3 files. There is also an option to see the words that are being spoken in large size at the top of the screen.
Julie Grant, Head of Communications for the Trust, said: “We are committed to improving access to information about our services, as well as developing our website. By speech-enabling the site, people who are visually impaired or find it difficult to read will have easier access to important information about their local healthcare services. ”
Information about Browsealoud can be found under the ‘Using this site’ tab in the left-hand menu of the website. The service is free of charge to users and the software will work on other Browsealoud-enabled sites.
