This week (13th – 17th November) is ‘Accessibility to Me’ Awareness Week, a week dedicated to opening up about the world of accessibility and inclusion. Online accessibility ensures that all visitors, regardless of their ability, have an inclusive experience of online content. Unfortunately, many companies don’t comply with accessibility guidelines and make the user experience for people with disabilities difficult, which could have some devastating outcomes.
As part of our measures to support providers to meet the requirements of the accessible information standard QCS introduced Recite Me accessibility and language tools within our software to ensure we can support our service users to access policies and content in a format that meets their communication needs.
As part of our diversity and inclusion strategy, Care Providers logging into the QCS system are able to access a wide range of tools to customise their digital experience using Recite Me assistive technology.
In the last year* we have seen over 280,000 customers using the Recite Me toolbar within our system. 70% of these used the Screen Reader feature, where content is read out loud for the user and 26% of users enabled the translation feature. This means.
Being able to offer an inclusive experience is essential to many of our customers who in very critical and stressful circumstances can get the information they need clearly and concisely. Meaning they are able to do the right thing when it comes to providing care.
The Recite Me assistive toolbar within our system includes screen reading functionality, multiple reading aids, customisable styling options and on-demand live translation feature that boasts over 100 languages including 65 text-to-speech and styling along with supporting people with sensory needs and those with dyslexia.
Lindasy Rees, Head of Social Care Content commented, “Here at QCS, accessibility is extremely important to us. We are committed to ensuring all health and social care providers can access key information instantly, in a way that best meets their individual needs. It is critical that people can access to read and understand the policies and procedures which underpin the care they provide. An example of this would be medication management or fire safety, where failure to follow best practice, policy and procedure could cause significant harm or even death. The ability to have the content read in the native language of a staff member, on in a format more suitable for their needs, supports people to gain a deeper understanding of the policy and procedure, be more able to apply this in practice, and be empowered to provide the best care possible.”
Accessing content online can be an incredibly intimidating place for those with access barriers, and those lacking the tools they need to adequately understand or communicate are at a significant disadvantage.
Ross Linnett Recite Me’s Founder and CEO commented, “It is important to provide an inclusive online experience, where everyone can use our digital world in a way which best suits their needs. As more organisations provide accessibility tools online, those who face online barriers can access information and services hassle-free. The digital world must be accessible for all.”
To explore the full QCS system including the many features such as the Recite Me accessibility support tool visit www.qcs.co.uk.
