Speech enabling this website using Browsealoud

This website is speech enabled, meaning you can download free software onto your personal computer and have the site read aloud to you. The free software that Nottingham City Council uses is called Browsealoud. Browsealoud will also read pdfs in Adobe Reader Version 6 upwards, meeting the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) level "A" guideline for accessibility.

Simply by scrolling your mouse over the text that you want read to you, the speech enabler, browselaoud, will read and speak what is written. see example below:

Highlight the text you want read aloud to you:

Then the text will turn yellow (according to your settings - see below):

Right click on your mouse and click 'speak selection aloud' and the reader will highlight each word in blue (again according to your settings) and will read out the sentences highlighted:

The highlighted text will then be read aloud and highlighted across the top of your computer screen in large type (blue text on yellow - see seetings):

Downloading browsealoud

Click on the image or link below and you will be taken to the Browsealoud website, site where you will find full instructions to carry out the download and installation.

Customising Browsealoud

	Once the software has downloaded, a Browsealoud icon will be placed in your system tray which is at the bottom right hand corner of your screen (beside the system clock).
	To change the options in browsealoud. please right click on this icon , choose 'open Browsealoud settings' from the menu and you can change your setting, as per examples below. The speech tab on the settings window enables you to choose a male or female voice, and change the speed, pitch and volume of the reader. You can choose to read just an individual sentence you have pointed at or the entire page from where your cursor points. Further options let you save speech selections or even whole documents as mp3 files for repeated listening.

Browsealoud makes using the Internet easier for people who have:

• Low literacy and reading skills
• English as a second language
• Dyslexia
• Mild visual impairments

You can use Browsealoud on a PC or a Mac, for help, support and advice about how to use this tool please click here to visit the Browsealoud websites' Support pages.

The Browsealoud website features:

• Comprehensive information about this software
• Allows you to download the software freely and safely
• Provides information about what other websites use this tool
• FAQ’s and also a contact us facility
• User-defined hotkeys to activate and deactivate speech
• Pronunciation engine to add words and define how a word is pronounced
• Option to add voices to those already on the computer
• Option to have the programme start when the computer starts

For further help and assistance with Browsealoud visit the following website and have a look at their FAQ’s - www.browsealoud.com/faq.asp.

Other text readers and screen magnification

Other specialist software such as Jaws and Supernova (not free downloadables) can help you access webpages. Pages can be magnified or converted to speech if you don't want to use Browsealowd.