Holloway Friendly announce support for vulnerable people

Holloway Friendly has given consideration how it can help Members who experience various vulnerabilities, and it is timely that the FCA published its final guidance paper on the “fair treatment of vulnerable customers” in February 2021. In response, Holloway have introduced a speech, reading and translation tool, called Browsealoud, to their website.

Browsealoud translates the web pages and pdf documents into over 100 languages and reads the content aloud using any of the 45 natural sounding voices available, allowing many vulnerable people to access their content and material in a more suitable format for their needs.  

This innovative tool from Texthelp helps millions of people who struggle to access and understand information online. In the UK alone, over 12 million people have print disabilities such as dyslexia, low literacy, mild visual impairment and over 8 million people were born abroad so speak English as a second language, so this tool should be a great help to those effected.

Suzy Esson, Director of Operations at Holloway, said “We’re delighted to announce that we’ve added speech, reading and translation support to our website with Browsealoud, and would like to thank Texthelp for their support and assistance in bringing this project to completion. This programme is simple to use by hovering your mouse over any text to hear it read aloud. And from a touchscreen device you’ll have to click on the text to hear it. There are so many ways that Browsealoud delivers our web content that it really makes our website much more accessible and usable by everyone. This addition to our website reflects our commitment to accessibility and inclusion; our aim is inclusion for all.”