Council Services

Site Help Information

Browsealoud - Speech Enabling our Website

This website is now speech-enabled, which means that you can download free software onto your personal computer and have the site read aloud to you. The free software is called Browsealoud, and is used on many other websites including Google and the BBC.

Why speech enable our website?

Speech enabling our website provides an additional way of accessing information 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, older people or anyone with a mild visual impairment. It is not designed to replace other screen readers.

System Requirements

For PC use Internet Explorer 6 or 7, or Firefox 2.0
For Mac use Safari
Full system requirements are available here

What is Browsealoud?

Browsealoud is a solution that allows you to have website content read to you. As you move the cursor over text, it is spoken aloud. Browsealoud is free to download and you have control over the voice, word pronunciations and speech highlighting.

Browsealoud may help those people who have a good understanding of the English language but do not find reading easy. It is, however, not suitable for the visually impaired.

How does it work?

You download a free, small browser plug-in. Once the plug-in has been installed, content on this site can be spoken aloud. Your computer must have a sound card fitted for Browsealoud to work and you will need speakers, or headphones.

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. 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 cursor points, check the 'Continue reading from pointer' box. Otherwise Browsealoud will only read the individual sentences you point to.

Where can I get Browsealoud?

When you follow the download Browsealoud link below you will be taken to an external site where you will find full instructions to carry out the download and installation. Remember this is free software that you will only need to download once.

Download and install Browsealoud.

The Browsealoud icon will be placed in your system tray which is at the bottom right of your computer

Once installed you can open the Browsealoud application by double clicking the icon in your system tray.

You will find that you can update Browsealoud and customise it to suit you own preferences.

Regular Updates

More websites add their names to the Browsealoud enabled sites and Browsealoud will prompt you to make regular updates. This is quick to do and will ensure that you will be able to listen to all those sites who have registerd with Browsealoud.

For immediate updates:

Double click on the Browsealoud icon in your system tray
Click on the "About" tab
Click on the "Update Browsealoud" button

How do I know if a website is speech enabled using browsealoud?

There are 2 ways to tell if a web site is speech enabled.

The system tray icon:

The system tray is on the bottom right of your computer screen. It usually contains a few icons and is beside the system clock. Browsealoud displays an icon in this area to show that it is running. If the icon is simply 3 concentric blue circles, then the current web site is not speech enabled. If it changes with a red tick, then the web site is speech enabled.
The mouse pointer:

On the web, a mouse pointer will normally look like one of the pictures below:

On a browsealoud enabled site, a mouse pointer will look like one of the pictures below:

Note: you can disable the mouse pointer change in the Browsealoud Settings.

For further help and assistance with the Browsealoud product please take a look at the Browsealoud FAQs (this link opens in a new window).