JISC TechDis Toolbar (Beta)

JISC TechDis is pleased to announce the Beta launch of the new JISC TechDis Toolbar. This free application can be installed on a website or downloaded onto an individual PC, working seamlessly across all operating systems to provide significant benefits for everyone using the internet, especially those involved in education or with a disability.

JISC TechDis has been working with associates at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science to create an updated and enhanced browser toolbar to replace the original, highly popular toolbar developed in 2005. The new toolbar is also available to users as a ‘Lite’ version that can be accessed with one simple mouse click.

The new JISC TechDis Toolbar provides a range of productivity and accessibility tools and aids to help users customise the way they view and interact with web pages. Features include a text to speech function, spell checking and dictionary facilities, and a feature for gathering referencing information within a web page. It also provides simple ways to adjust the magnification or font used on web pages.

The JISC TechDis Toolbar is suitable for different operating systems and is designed to work with all browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. You can download either :

• the full version of the toolbar (which will be available for all web pages viewed), for which you will need administration rights on your machine in order to install it, or
  
• the Lite version (which needs to be reloaded for each new web page viewed) - this doesn't require admin rights and so should be usable on public access computers.
  

The toolbar can be installed
1) on your webpage (see http://www.lexdis.org.uk for an example - the toolbar is at the top of the page)
2) on your computer - if you have administrator rights
3) as an active bookmark for use on specific web pages.

The simplest way to get started is to play with the Lite version – there is a ‘Getting Started’ video clip at http://www.lexdis.org.uk/technology/112

Installation

The installation method differs depending on the route you choose and the admin rights you have:

For the Lite version, please click the following link and the Toolbar should appear at the top of the webpage: JISC TechDis Toolbar Lite. Alternatively, to store this link as a bookmark (so it can be used on any future pages) please drag the link into your browser's bookmark area (in Firefox), or right-click the link and add it to your favourites (in IE and other browsers).

To download and install the JISC TechDis Toolbar on a Windows-based computer, please download and run the Windows Installer for the JISC TechDis Toolbar

For other Operating Systems and Browsers, downloadable instructions on the manual installation of the JISC TechDis Toolbar are available from the Manual Instructions page.

Further instructions if required can be found at http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ToolBar/.

Uninstallation

To uninstall the JISC TechDis toolbar, please view the relevant browser document from the Manual Instructions page - these documents contain step by step instructions to uninstall the toolbar.

Whilst tools such as inbuilt browser magnification and colour changes or third party portable apps still have an important role to play, the toolbar is a simple accessibility application that provides all of the functionality you would usually get in many different products.

Feedback and Support

We will be developing additional guidance on using the toolbar, so any general comments and feedback received will be welcome, please send these to us at helpdesk@techdis.ac.uk.

Because this is a Beta version, there remains the possibility of issues with some of the functionality - please report any specific issues directly to the University of Southampton development team using the online form available at http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ToolBar/contribute.

It is best practice when designing web pages to include an obvious 'accessibility' link providing guidance for users on how to adjust browser settings to their own needs and preferences. It may be appropriate that a link to the JISC TechDis Toolbar is added to such pages, including a brief description of what it does.

The JISC TechDis Toolbar also helps in promoting the notion of accessibility and productivity tools being part of the same continuum - while the Toolbar will be of direct benefit to a range of users with particular disabilities, it will also be of use to a wide variety of users in terms of improving their productivity or comfort. For this reason it is hoped that it will not become solely the domain of accessibility specialists and will be taken up by a range of users and promoted within organisations by technology champions of all kinds.

Features of the JISC TechDis Toolbar

The logo on the JISC TechDis Toolbar can be selected to receive updates for the Toolbar. We suggest you check for updates regularly, and press the refresh button in your browser to complete the update. The features on the Toolbar will not work with all websites, as their functionality may be dependent on the design elements within individual pages. It is important to realise it may not be possible to change certain colours, fonts, or even to check spelling in some forms.

	Select the Magnifier buttons to increase or decrease the size of text. If text resizing makes the site unreadable you may wish to use your browser zoom feature to increase both the image and the text sizes.
	Select the Font button to choose a different type of font for the text and increase line spacing.
	Select the Spell Checker button while writing in a plain text form. Suggestions are shown below the text-area after a pause. Disable the checker by selecting the button once more. Note that this may not work with rich-text editors that already have spell checkers.
	Select the Dictionary button after highlighting a word in the web page and a definition from Wiktionary will appear.
	Select the text-to-speech button and choose whether you want the whole page read out loud, or just the highlighted text. You can highlight a portion of text before selecting the Text-to-Speech button to have only that text read out. Wait for that section to finish before highlighting a new section of text. Note that large pages, such as Facebook pages, may require you to select smaller portions of text at a time.
	Select the References button and JISC TechDis Toolbar will scan the page for referencing information - it will collect as much as it can linked to authorship, dates, title of the page, name of the website and the URL. Once you have selected the green tick you can highlight the text and copy it into any notepad or word processor.
	Select the Styles button to alter the colour of the JISC TechDis Toolbar, change the web page colours - background, text and links or choose pre-made page styles. Some web page colour changes also impact on the toolbar.
	Select help to gain access to instructions for use.
	Select the return menu if you wish to restore the webpage to its original style.
	Select close to exit JISC TechDis Toolbar.

License

The JISC TechDis Toolbar is available under the BSD Open Source license. You are free to copy, redistribute and study it as long as you leave the BSD license including original attribution intact. Modifications and derived works can be distributed under the terms of the BSD.