SDF launches accessibility and language support on our websites

1st October 2021

Scottish Drugs Forum are pleased to announce that, as part of efforts to make our services more accessible, we now provide accessibility and language support on our websites. We hope that moving forward our online presence will be accessible to everyone, including people with an impairment or a disability.

We have worked with ReciteMe to install a plug-in that makes the site more accessible . The plug-in has been added to the sdf.org.uk, sdftraining.org.uk, e-learning and stopthedeaths.com websites. The toolbar can be activated by clicking on the Accessibility Tools button found at the top of these sites.

The plug-in allows people visiting the sites to –

  • Translate the text into any of over 100 languages
  • Have the text read aloud in any of 20 languages
  • Change the colour and shade of the background
  • Change the size of the font or the font itself
  • Install a magnifier that will increase the size of part of the screen
  • Add a ruler
  • Use a screen mask to focus on parts of the page
  • Use a dictionary
  • Remove all graphics to create a text-only version

We hope this move will accommodate people who do not use English as their first language  and for people who have an impairment or a disability, or find the website inaccessible for other reasons.  The plug-in will allow visitors to customise their experience on our websites to suit their needs.

Austin Smith, Head of Policy, Practice and Communications, welcomed the development. “We are all pleased that, at last, the website is more accessible for people. We want people to be comfortable and engage with SDF online in a way that suits them. The investment here is just part of a plan to open up our work more broadly. As a national resource of expertise across a broad-based membership, our work is about connecting people and information. Accessibility is key to that work. We have always tried to communicate clearly and effectively but some people have been excluded from that and recognising and addressing that is important.”