Published: 13 December 2021
Over the course of the last year and several months, we’ve all become far more familiar with the use of technology when it comes to higher education.
Due to the pandemic, much of the way you’ve lived your student lives has been online, through video streams and instant messenger chats.
But not everyone accesses technology in the same way.
There are plenty of reasons someone may need extra tools to use the University of Sunderland in London website, for example.
That could be to do with your hearing, sight, language skills and more.
But what we at the University are sure of above anything else is that every student has the right to the same high-quality education and access.
That’s why, for the last few months, we’ve had the ReciteMe toolbar included on our website.
This innovative piece of technology has been created to help students like yourself access the full range of information our site has to offer.
That includes a screen reader which plays a recording of the text on the page out loud and translations in over 100 languages.
It also includes buttons that let you adapt the website to change the size of the text, edit the colours used (useful for colour-blindness), add in a ruler and a dictionary.
All of these means anyone, whatever their needs, will be able to access our site in comfort and enjoyment.
Studies show that 1 in 5 people have impairments that make accessing content online difficult.
At the University of Sunderland in London, we believe that accessibility is at the heart of everything we do.
That’s why it’s so important for us to make sure our website is completely available to anyone who wants to use it.
That belief became even more vital as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and we started shifting our lives online.
That’s why we’re proud to be paving the way as one of the first institutions, along with the University of Sunderland, to include assistive technology on our website in 2020.
This year, the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide rated us the University of the Year for Social Inclusion.
We believe in the importance of extending that to everything we do, including digital inclusion.
If you want to try out the ReciteMe programme for yourself, simply click Accessibility at the top right of any page on the website.
Try out a few different options and see what works for you best.
You can even save your preferences so the system will remember you each time you come to the site.
If you need help accessing anything during your time at the University because of your specific needs, talk to our Health and Wellbeing team.
If you’d like to speak them confidentially, you can book an appointment online.
Get in touch through Compass, email them at wellbeingteamlondon@sunderland.ac.uk or call on 0207 531 7343. Find out more by following #WeAreSunLon on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.