Site Help
We hope our site is easy on the eyes for most people but we understand that sometimes reading webpages can be difficult. We have installed an accessibility aid so you can easily change text size and contrast if required. It floats on the right side of the page just below the header bar.
To Use:
Click the icon and select the font and colour enhancement best for you.
Click the icon again to hide the menu.
Click ‘Reset’ to set fonts and colours back to the original style.
We have looked for a way to present our pages audibly. In testing we found the results to be very different depending on the device and browser used to display the site.
We recommend using a Browser Extension that when set will give you consistent results on ALL WEBPAGES not just Northants Parkinson’s peoples
Please see the detailed instructions for your
preferred browser below
There are several browser extensions that will read a webpage available. We recommend one called READ ALOUD. This extension is available for Chrome and Firefox. Its also pre-installed in Microsofts EDGE Browser so if your preferred browser is EDGE you are already set to go.
Configure Edge
Install in Chrome
Install in Firefox
Voice Setup
Configure Edge
Microsoft Windows 10 usually has EDGE browser pre-installed. It has Read Aloud installed by default. To use it try the following.
Click the three dots at top right of browser then select Read Aloud from the drop-down list. Alternatively use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+U.
A control bar will pop up just above the page content. Play and Pause in the centre. Forward (next sentence) and backward (beginning of the current sentence)
Voice options allow you to change the voice and talk speed. (there are British and UK Regional accents along with many foreign languages)
while Read Aloud is active you can right-click any text to continue reading
Northants Parkinson’s people will not show adverts but if you are using Edge to browse other sites with adverts try Clicking F9, this puts you in Immersive Reader Mode and strips out adverts so you can concentrate on just the article
Finally just to let you know, Edge will read aloud PDF’s and Ebooks too.
Install in Chrome
To Install the extension on Chrome
Open Chrome store at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions?hl=en-GB
type Read Aloud into the search box
Click the item and it will be added to your browser.
A small icon will display in the top left of the chrome browser.
It will now read any highlighted text by clicking the icon
But that’s not all
Right-click the icon and select options.
You can now select different voices, British English, Welsh English, Irish English (an English voice will be the default if your device locale is set correctly)
It is possible to set a keyboard shortcut to start READ ALOUD. I set mine to CTRL+ALT+U because that is the default shortcut in EDGE and I use both.
Install in Firefox
To Install the extension on Firefox
Click the 3 bars in the top right corner of the browser.
Click on Add-Ons
In find more Add-ons Type ‘Read Aloud’ Click the top item in the list, then click ‘Add to Firefox’
Allow the extension.
Voice Setup
Microsoft Edge and it’s built-in Read Aloud only has Microsoft voices to choose from. (and being a Microsoft product will not let you choose a voice from another vendor)
Read Aloud as installed on Chrome and Firefox has a range of voices, including many from Google. Google (Standard) voices use WAVENET technology? I’m no wiser either, but the voices have excelent quality.
If you select a Google voice you may be presented with a pop up to add additional permissions. I clicked it and was taken to a google developer site and had to click ‘I’m not a robot’ and ‘Play’ I now have permission to use Google voices and in my opinion they are excellent quality.
Its well worth checking a few voices, if the voice is annoying then you will not enjoy the content.