NHS Direct has agreed a deal with Brousealoud.com, specialists in reading web pages aloud for people who find it difficult to read online, to make its website available in audio form.
Users of the NHS Direct website can now download software from Browsealoud to have sections of the website read to them.
A NHS Direct spokesperson told EHI: “NHS Direct websites users can now use this software to hover the mouse cursor over the text they want to hear and have it read out to them using this character recognition software. This will help people who have vision problems or possibly literacy problems get the best possible experience of our website.”
The Browsealoud software is customisable so the user can set his or her own requirements using the solution.
A Browsealoud spokesperson told EHI: “Browsealoud makes the NHS Direct website easier for people who have low literacy and reading skills, English as a second language, dyslexia or even mild visual impairments. This represents a significant proportion of the UK population.
“Over 12m people are elderly and may have difficulties using the site. Add to that, the seven million people with literacy problems and one million people with learning difficulties, and you can see that this could potentially aid almost half the population get the best possible health information and advice from this one source of information.”
NHS Direct’s website currently attracts around two million visits each month and they hope the improvements will help more people use it as their number one health information resource.
Associate clinical director of health information at NHS Direct, Adrian Reyes-Hughes, said: “This initiative makes health information much more readily accessible, particularly to those who find it difficult to read the text on our website.”
NHS Direct are also letting users customise the website, according to their choice from this month. Colours and font sizes can be changed, and access keys can be used to take users to key sections of the website.
The new developments were welcomed by the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
Donna Smillie, web accessibility consultant for the charity, said: “It’s excellent to see organisations like NHS Direct take web accessibility seriously. Initiatives like this make information more widely accessible – something that is essential for important information and advice on health and medical issues.”
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