Readspeaker application makes the UOC more mobile and accessible
Beginning last semester, the UOC portal has incorporated a tool that allows content to be read and downloaded in MP3 format. This improvement has made the portal more mobile and accessible and will soon be extended to the Virtual Campus as well.
Readspeaker is a tool that allows content to be read and downloaded in MP3 format. The UOC has become, thus, the first university in Spain to put a tool within reach of their students and users that facilitates downloading of news, interviews, and other content from their web to an iPod or similar devices so that they can be “transported” and listened to anywhere.
The Readspeaker player also makes the portal more accessible to persons with reading difficulties, such as dyslexics or older persons with vision problems. The voice player, which includes three buttons (Listen, Print, Share), is already available in the portal. Clicking on the Listen button activates the sound and the button changes into a small bar, at the far right of which is a downward facing arrow that allows the file to be downloaded in MP3.
Because of its accessible and mobile nature, Readspeaker opens many possibilities for consulting content to people who travel for long periods of time without internet access, as well as to those who use their time while practicing sports to keep up to date with university matters and, in general, to all users who perform various tasks simultaneously. The application also improves access to contents for older people, children who haven’t yet learned to read, and people who are learning a language but still don’t read it.