BrowseAloud: A website reader
The Luminus website is now speech-enabled, which means that you can download free software onto your computer and have the site read aloud to you. The free software is called BrowseAloud, and is used on over 2000 websites in the UK and USA. If you run the BrowseAloud application onto your PC or Mac, you can have the web pages on the Luminus Group’s website read to you (as well as any other sites that are speech-enabled e.g. Google and the BBC).
Why speech-enable our website?
Speech enabling our website provides an additional way of accessing our content for people who find it hard to read. This includes those with dyslexia or learning difficulties, those for whom English is not their first language, or anyone with a mild visual impairment.
What is BrowseAloud?
BrowseAloud is a solution that allows you to have website content read to you. As you move the mouse over text, it is spoken aloud. BrowseAloud is free to download and you have control over the voice, word pronunciations and speech highlighting.
How does it work?
You download a free, small application. Once the programme has been installed, content on this site can be spoken aloud.
Does it work on all pages?
BrowseAloud will read every webpage on our site. It can also read PDFs in Adobe Reader Version 6.0 onwards and MS Word documents. This meets the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Level A guidelines for accessibility.
Can I customise BrowseAloud?
Yes. Once plugged in, look for the BrowseAloud icon in your system tray, which is usually at the bottom right hand corner of your screen (beside the system clock). Right click on the icon and choose 'open BrowseAloud settings' from the menu. 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. To read the entire page, from where your mouse points, mark the 'Continue reading from pointer' box. Otherwise BrowseAloud will only read the individual sentences you point to.
For further help and assistance with the BrowseAloud product take a look at the BrowseAloud FAQs on their website.
Downloading BrowseAloud
Please click the orange BrowseAloud link above. This will lead you to the BrowseAloud’s download page. Follow the instructions for download from their site at www.browsealoud.com/uk/download/