News

As part of the Heritage Lottery Fund's ongoing commitment to improving access to their website, they have enabled their site with an innovative new product called BrowseAloud.

BrowseAloud is a text-to-speech solution that reads all accessible website content aloud in a high quality, human-sounding voice, which can be altered to suit the individual's specific needs. As text is read aloud, words are highlighted; a useful tool which aids literacy and comprehension.

Solima Khatun, Web Manager at the Heritage Lottery Fund, commented about the new addition of BrowseAloud, "At the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are dedicated to sustaining and transforming our heritage for everyone to enjoy so it's vital that everyone, regardless of ability, can access our information online. BrowseAloud is a welcome addition to our site as it provides our website visitors with a range of reading tools totally free of charge."

Anyone can use this new feature by clicking on the BrowseAloud logo on the Heritage Lottery Fund accessibility page. From there, users can download BrowseAloud in a few simple steps. Once downloaded the facility is ready to be used and can:

•    Read secure web pages
•    Read PDF and Word Documents in their original format
•    Highlight each word as it is spoken to show you where you are on the page
•    Magnify text to a chosen font size and font style
•    Translate word-for-word between English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
•    Look up accurate dictionary definitions
•    Convert text to MP3
•    Mask information on the screen to help users focus on a particular area

For more information on how the Heritage Lottery Fund integrated BrowseAloud onto their site, visit www.hlf.org.uk. For more information on BrowseAloud, or to download your free trial, visit www.browsealoud.com. Alternatively, contact Donna on 028 9442 8105 or d.thomson@browsealoud.com.