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How To Use ReadSpeaker - Our built-in text to speech facility.

ReadSpeaker allows the text on the website to be read out loud to you. It provides you assistance if you have trouble reading text online. By having the text read out loud to you, you can understand the information on the website more easily. This makes the content more accessible and the website more pleasant to visit. As a user you don’t have to download anything.

How does it work?

Listen to the main content

You simply click the Listen button to listen to the webpage’s content:

An audio player appears (see image below) and ReadSpeaker starts reading the text of the webpage out loud.

In the player you can:

• Pause/restart the reading
  
  
• Stop the reading
  
  
• Use the progress bar to navigate in the audio
  
  
• Adjust the volume
  
  
• Click the settings (cog) icon to adjust the behaviour of the service
  
  
• Click the download icon (down facing arrow) to download the audio file in an Mp3 format
  
  
• Close the player

You can use tab/shift+tab to navigate inside the player and press enter to activate a certain button or link.

Listen to selected text

You can select a part of the text (by clicking and dragging over the text) that you want to listen to and then press the pop-up Listen button that appears next to the mouse pointer. When you click the pop-up Listen button, an audio player appears (see the image below) and ReadSpeaker starts reading the text you have selected.

Settings

We recommend the following settings to maximise your ReadSpeaker experience:

1. Turn ON the 'enhanced text visibility' option - this will display large subtitles of the text being spoken at the bottom of the page.
   
   
2. Make sure the 'Pop-up button' is ON - This allows you to select specific text to read by selecting it with the mouse.
   

In the settings menu, you can:

• Choose whether you want to have the text highlighted while read.
  
  
• Choose a large 'subtitle' display of highlighted text - the 'enhanced visibility' option.
  
  
• Choose whether you want the text highlighted on a word and sentence basis, sentence only, or word only.
  
  
• Choose style and colours for the highlighting.
  
  
• Choose whether you want the reading speed to be slow, medium, or fast.
  
  
• Choose whether you want the page to scroll automatically to follow the highlighted text.
  
  
• Choose whether you want the pop-up Listen button to be shown when text is selected.

Reading Pdf Attachments Aloud

This website has been equipped with 'docReader' technology. This means that nearly all documents on this website are able to be read aloud and converted into an easy to read format. The document reader will not work with non-Council documents that are actually hosted on external websites.

To use this facility simply click on the small icon to the right of each attachment link:

The document will open up in a new window.

To listen to the document, first select the page to read, read from the list on the left of the window, then click on the 'Listen' button:

You can also select specific text to be read by dragging the mouse over the text and clicking on the listen button that pops up.

Other functions

Doc Reader allows you to switch between the standard view and a clear easy to read view by selecting one of the view mode buttons shown below. The 'cog' button allows you to change the size and the appearance of the text along with various other settings:

Website Accessibility

Bathurst Regional Council is committed to ensuring greater website access to all customers. This includes providing access to our programs and services for people with disabilities.

We are aiming to ensure that wherever possible, our website complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines developed by W3C.

Where our website site links to external sources or utilises third party software applications, accessibility can unfortunately be compromised as these resources are beyond our control.

Other possible exceptions may include some Portable Document Files (Pdfs) on this site. Adobe Acrobat PDFs have been used to present lengthy documents and formatting that can't always be presented in HTML or text. By downloading the latest version of Adobe Acrobat reader you'll find there are a number of features that support disabled users. Including the ability to:

Read PDF files aloud using standard operating system text-to-speech functionality;
Have greater control when using screen readers;
Evaluate the accessibility of an Adobe PDF file;
For more about Adobe's PDF accessibility, and to download the latest version of the PDF reader, visit the Adobe website.

If you have any concerns or questions about the accessibility of our website please feel free to provide us with your feedback. You can also contact us to arrange the required information to be presented to you in a way suitable to your needs.

Languages other than English

If you would like to speak with staff of Bathurst Regional Council in your first language, please telephone the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 (local call anywhere in Australia) and ask to be connected with Bathurst Regional Council.

Indigenous Languages

We acknowledge and supports the use of Indigenous languages. If you would like to discuss your project or submit your application in your first language, please contact an Indigenous Language Centre. For a list of Indigenous Language Centres in your area, refer to the National Indigenous Languages Contacts Directory available from FATSIL – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation of Languages, 295 King Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, phone (03) 9602 4700