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Recite Me user guide

Overhead close-up of a person reviewing a formal-looking document. They are holding a pen to make notes. A laptop is on the table in front of them. Overlaid is text that reads: "Policy Library".

Catch22 has added the Recite Me web accessibility and language toolbar to its website to make it accessible and inclusive for as many people as possible. This cloud-based software works on multiple devices and operating systems including Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, and Windows devices, without the need for users to download anything to their device. This allows visitors to view and use our website in a way that works best for them.

For example, you can use the Recite Me toolbar to:

  • read website text aloud (including PDFs),
  • download the text as an MP3 file to play it where and when it suits you,
  • change font sizes and colours,
  • customise background colours,
  • translate text into more than 100 different languages, or
  • access a fully integrated dictionary and thesaurus.

Recite Me User Guide

You can open the Recite Me Accessibility Toolbar by clicking on the “Accessibility Tools” button in the top-left corner of any page:

"Accessibility Tools" button for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to turn the toolbar on.

After you click on the “Accessibility tools” button, the Recite Me toolbar opens and displays a range of different options for customising the way the website looks and ways you can interact with the content. These buttons are described below, in order from left to right.

To close the Recite Me toolbar, simply click on the icon marked “Close” to the far-right of the toolbar.

Play audio

Example icons for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to rewind, play, and fast-forward 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.

To disable the auto-read functionality, you need to click on the button marked “Settings”. This will give you a list of three functions to choose from. You need to click on the button to the right of the option marked “Autoplay”. This will then disable auto-read.

Text options

Example icons for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to decrease and increase the font size, and change the font used.

  • Decrease: Decrease the text size.
  • Font: Change the font that displays on the page.
  • Increase: Increase the text size.

Colour, ruler and mask

Example icons for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to change colours, access the ruler, and mask tools.

  • Colour: Change the background, text, and/or link colours.
  • Ruler: Enable the reading ruler.
  • Screen mask: Create a letterbox for focused viewing of a section of the page.

Dictionary, translation, and magnifier

Example icons for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to access the dictionary, translation and magnification tools.

  • Dictionary: Highlight and click to view the definition of the word.
  • Translation: Translate text into a different language – this will produce a drop-down list of all the languages that Recite Me offers. Find the language that you want from the list and press on it, the site will then be converted to that language.
  • Magnifier: Click and drag to magnify text on the screen.

Margins, plain text mode, and download audio

Example icons for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to change the margins, enter text-only mode, or download a copy of the page.

  • Margins: Change the text dimensions by narrowing the width of the text column.
  • Text mode: Remove images to view content in plain text mode.
  • Download audio: Highlight the text then click the button to download the text as an audio file – to use this, you will first need to turn off the autoplay option (located within the Settings button). Once created, you will see the file appear in your downloads which you can then listen to or save to a location of your choice.

Settings

Example icons for the Recite Me accessibility toolbar, depicting how to access the settings, reset the toolbar, or access the user guide.

  • Settings: Adjust your Recite Me toolbar settings – these will be saved to your device using cookies.
  • Reset: Restore the default settings.
  • User guide: Access an overview of the Recite Me toolbar features.