Help with using the Mid Beds Website
Disabilities
The Mid Beds website offers several features in order to assist disabled people:
Speech Reading of the Website
This website is now speech-enabled, and you can download free software onto your personal computer and have the site read aloud to you. The free software is called Browsealoud, and is used on over 2000 websites in the UK and USA. Browsealoud is a Windows browser plug-in designed for use with Internet Explorer 4 upwards, Netscape Navigator and Mozilla Forefox. Why speech enable our website? Speech enabling our website provides an additional way of accessing our content for people who find it hard to read. This includes those with dyslexia or learning difficulties, those for whom English is not their first language, or anyone with a mild visual impairment. It is not designed to replace other screen readers. What is Browsealoud? Browsealoud is a solution that allows you to have website content read to you. As you move the cursor over text, it is spoken aloud. Browsealoud is free to download and you have control over the voice, word pronunciations and speech highlighting. How does it work? You download a free, small browser plug-in. Once the plug-in has been installed, content on this and other Browsealoud enabled websites can be spoken aloud. Does it work on all pages? Browsealoud will read all pages on our site except where these are hosted externally e.g. links to other sites. It can also read documents with pdf at the end in Adobe Reader Version 6.0 onwards. This meets the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Level A guidelines for accessibility. Can I customise Browsealoud? Yes. Once plugged in, look for the Browsealoud icon in your system tray, which is usually at the bottom right hand corner of your screen (beside the system clock). Right click on the icon and choose 'open Browsealoud settings' from the menu. The speech tab on the settings window enables you to choose a male or female voice, and change the speed, pitch and volume of the reader. To read the entire page from where your cursor points, check the 'Continue reading from pointer' box. Otherwise Browsealoud will only read the individual sentences you point to.
Additional voices can be downloaded from the Browsealoud website.
For further help and assistance with the Browsealoud product take a look at the Browsealoud FAQs. Downloading Browsealoud You can download Browsealoud by clicking here and you will be taken to an external site where you will find full instructions to carry out the download and installation. A Browsealoud icon will be placed in your system tray which is at the bottom right of your browser.
Accesskeys
Accesskeys are available for those who cannot use a mouse, and enable the selection of main navigation options using the keyboard. You must use the number keys along the top of the keyboard and not those on the number pad.
Site Accesskeys:
0 - Council Services
1 - About the Council and Local Democracy
2 - Community Website
3 - Business Services
4 - Arts and Leisure
5 - Tourism
6 - Home Page
7 - News
8 - Frequently Asked Questions
To use the accesskeys, press and hold the ALT key (PC) or Option key (Macintosh), and press the number for the navigation option you wish to select. Once you've done this, press the Enter key, and the desired page should load.
Help with Downloads
The site contains many documents available for download, and these exist in one of four main formats - Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat. These are standard formats for internet-available documents. If you cannot open either of these file types, you may wish to download one of the free readers using the links below.
Links to other pages or websites
We are currently in the process of replacing 'all popup links' to links that open in the same browser window.
It is up to you if you would like to open the link in a new window (to do this use the right mouse button and selection 'open in new window' - or teh left mouse button if your mouse is set up for a left handed person).
We have found that because 'popup blockers' are now preventing the links from opening, it makes sense to allow you to choose whether the link opens in a new window or not.
Any Other Problems
If you have a problem with the website, you can contact the webmaster at webmaster@midbeds.gov.uk or fill in our online contact form.
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