The ReachDeck Toolbar has now been in place for over 6 months, and in that time this new communication tool has helped many of our patients and website visitors.
Reachdeck provides speech, reading and translation support to our website using a bepoke toolbar.
The tool from Texthelp helps us to make our online content more available to everyone, providing online visitors assistive features and a choice in how they access our information.
Why is this important?
Globally 1 in 7 people have a disability. For many, they experience barriers when they’re on the web. For example, people with visual impairments might struggle if information is only available in text format. And those with cognitive disabilities might find it difficult to read information on a crowded web page. This can impact their ability to browse, buy and access online content or services. What's more, only 1 in 10 people in need have access to assistive technology. By adding the ReachDeck Toolbar, we're giving extra support to people that might need it.
Our visitors can choose to have our content read out loud. They can remove distracting content, or add a screen tint with a reading pane to help them focus. They can translate our web pages into over 100 languages. And much more!
Speech, reading and translation tools via ReachDeck
Whether you are using a smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac, ReachDeck provides speech, reading and translation tools. This is a guide on how the ReachDeck toolbar can support you when using the website.
ReachDeck icon
You will find the ReachDeck icon in the top left corner, as shown above, the toolbar will appear at the top of the browser window.
What is ReachDeck?
ReachDeck adds speech, reading, and translation tools to the page. It makes content more accessible for people with dyslexia, literacy problems, English as a second language, and mild visual impairments.
Features include:
- dual-colour highlighting
- text magnification
- translation
- MP3 maker
- screen masking
- pronunciation modifier
- secure site reading
- PDF reading
- international languages
The toolbar
Using the buttons on the toolbar, you can:
- hear text read aloud
- translate it
- convert to MP3
- add a screen mask
- magnify text
- personalise your own settings
Text to speech
If you would like information to be read out aloud on a page click on the first symbol shown below, highlight the text or use the play and stop buttons.
Translation
If you need to change the language on the website you can select the icon highlighted below. This will display a list of 99 languages for you to choose from.
Some languages will also show the text to speech symbol (as above) which means the page can also be read out aloud in this language.
Picture dictionary
This button displays images for you on text that you highlight, highlight the word and then select the icon highlighted below from the toolbar.
MP3 generation
You can download an audio file of selected information on a page, click the icon highlighted below and the file will be generated. If you have translated the page this will be generated in the selected language.
Screen mask
This lets you apply a colour filter to your screen. A letterbox reading window will display so you can focus on a few lines of text at a time.
Text magnification
You can magnify the text as it's being read aloud. You can set the font, size and colour to suit your needs by selecting the icon highlighted below.
Simplifier
You can magnify the text as it's being read aloud. You can set the font, size and colour to suit your needs by selecting the icon highlighted below.
Help
Selecting the question mark gives you a quick list of the features on the toolbar.
Settings
In the settings menu you can personalise the features to suit your own needs. You can personalise the following:
- Highlight colours for text to speech and text magnification
- Set text magnifier on as default
- Select the size of the magnified text
- Switch hover to speak off
- Select voice speed
- Identify links on a webpage
Video guide