Text to Speech & New Page Structure Feature
We are excited to share two New enhancements to our Toolbar.
One an enhancement to our existing Text to Speech as well as a Brand New Page Structure Feature.
TEXT TO SPEECH
Driven by user feedback we have improved the feature by enhancing the player controls, providing seamless toggle on and off as well as reducing the cognitive load of the toolbar by reducing our icons.
Pressing the icon will provide a drop offering the same extensive user options as our existing feature. Pay Automatically on hover or read whole page of content. The reading speed and voice preference is also available .
Providing keyboard controls is key to supporting our keyboard users, worth saying that these are displayed dynamically based on what operating system you are using.
Once active a user can use the controls to play /stop content, can forward through elements as well as skip forward and back which is especially useful when listening to long paragraphs of text.
Pressing the icon on the player control will take the user back to the options where they can either update their preference or turn off the feature entirely.
As we have moved the controls from the settings we have therefore removed this icon, but repurposed our User Guide icon into Information. When pressed a user can view our toolbar tutorial, visit the recite me website or view our accessibility statement.
We plan to release this to recite me site on Wednesday 6th August with aim to release to all clients the following week,
This update will also come with our an update to our Toolbar Tutorial. On initial launch of the toolbar a user will be presented with the Product Update. They can either view more an be taken through our tutorial or close and will not be shown the message again.
New Page Structure Feature
This powerful new feature is designed to help users quickly understand and navigate the layout of any webpage. It can quickly turn complex content into a more structured approachable view.
Split into three main sections
Headings, Landmarks and Links
Headings will give an overview of the Heading structure of the page, this is especially important for screen reader users or those with cognitive disabilities.
Landmarks which identifies major regions such as navigation , main content banners and footers, all are displayed here with an explanation of what they are. These are dynamic so will only show for what landmarks are identified.
And then we have Links providing a complete accessible list of on page links to help users navigate and find key actions. Pressing the link will take the user to that link destination.
This feature is now live on the Recite Me website, and we will release to all clients Wednesday 6th August.
We hope you like these updates, as will all of our features we encourage and value client and user feedback, so if you have any then please do let us know.