Out the Box

Boots boosts accessibility

More than 13 million people in the UK experience barriers when shopping online, Recite Me will make it easier for them to navigate around Boots.com.

WHAT’S THE STORY?

Boots has partnered with Recite Me to become the first retailer in the UK to add accessibility and language options to boots.com, making online shopping more inclusive and customisable. Recite Me is a cloud-based web accessibility assistive toolbar that allows website visitors to customise a site in a way that works best for them.

HOW DOES THAT WORK?

At a touch of a button, the Recite Me toolbar can be launched providing text to speech functionality, fully customisable styling features, reading support aids and a translation tool with over 100 languages, including 35 text-to-speech voices and many other features.

More than 13 million people in the UK experience barriers when shopping online, and this new technology will enable customers to create a customisable and inclusive shopping experience, making it easier for them to navigate around the website.

GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE

For customers who have visual impairment, the new tools can change the font size, isolate sentences, and swap the colour of the page to make it easier for those customers to read.

The Recite Me assistive toolbar also includes screen reading functionality, multiple reading aids, customisable styling options and an on-demand live translation feature that boasts more than 100 languages including 35 texts-to-speech. These features give control to website visitors to manage how they view and interact with content to suit their individual needs.

WHAT IS BOOTS SAYING?

Paula Bobbett, Director of E-Commerce at Boots UK, said: “We are delighted to be launching this market-first technology to boots.com, helping customers to customise the site to suit their own needs.

"The launch of the Recite Me accessibility tools help those customers who find it more challenging to shop online to browse, shop and manage their accounts hassle-free.”