How to use the Recite Me toolbar

We’ve added the Recite Me web accessibility and language toolbar to our website to make it accessible and inclusive for as many people as possible.

It helps 1 in 5 people in the UK who have a disability, including those with common conditions like sight loss and dyslexia, access our website in the way that suits them best. It also meets the needs of the 4.2 million people in the UK who speak a language other than English at home, by translating our web content into over 100 different languages.

How do I access the toolbar?

You can open the Recite Me toolbar by clicking on the accessibility tools button, which is located in the top right corner on every page on this website.

You can use the toolbar to:

  • Read website text aloud

  • Change font sizes and colours

  • Amend background colours

  • Download the text as an MP3 file

  • Translate text into more than 100 different languages

  • Access a fully integrated dictionary and thesaurus

Play audio

Back: Rewind to the previous paragraph of text

Play: Click the Play button to read the text aloud

Forward: Skip forward to the next paragraph of text

 

Text options

Decrease: This will decrease the text size

Font: You can change the font that displays on the page

Increase: This will increase the text size

 

Colour, ruler and mask

Colour: Change the background, text, and link colours

Ruler: Click to enable the reading ruler

Screen mask: Will create a letterbox for focused viewing of a section of the page

 

Dictionary, translation, and magnifier

Dictionary: Highlight and click on this to view the definition of the word

Magnifier: Click and drag the magnifying glass to magnify text on the screen

Translation: Translate text into a different language

 

Margins, plain text mode, and download audio

Text mode: Remove images to view content in plain text mode

Margins: Change the text dimensions by narrowing the width of the text column

Download audio: Highlight the text then click the button to download the text as an audio file

 

Settings

Settings: Adjust your Recite Me toolbar settings

Reset: This will restore the default settings

User guide: This will give you an overview of the Recite Me toolbar features

 

Keyboard shortcuts

  • Tab – to move to the next toolbar button.

  • Shift+tab – to go backwards

  • Spacebar – to select a button and to change toggles

  • ctrl+right – play next element

  • ctrl+left – play previous element

  • ctrl+alt+p – play the current element

  • ctrl+alt+f – show font menu

  • ctrl+alt+c – show theme menu

  • ctrl+r – enable/disable ruler

  • ctrl+d – enable/disable dictionary

  • ctrl+l – show translation languages

  • ctrl+x – enable/disable text-only mode

  • ctrl+m – show page margin settings

  • ctrl+shift+o – show/disable settings menu

  • ctrl+s – save settings